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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/25443448">Caledonian Capers</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cerdic519/pseuds/Cerdic519'>Cerdic519</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>The British Revolution [3]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Captain America - All Media Types, Winter Soldier (Comics)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>17th Century, Army, Domestic Avengers, England (Country), English Civil War, F/M, Fifeshire, Friendship, Gay Sex, Inheritance, Kilts, London, Love, M/M, Marriage, Minor Character Death, Nobility, Politics, Religion, Royalty, Scheming, Scotland, Secrets, Servants, Stucky - Freeform, Thirty Years War, Threats, petitions</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-08-11</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-08-11</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-05 08:02:04</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>15</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>23,604</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/25443448</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cerdic519/pseuds/Cerdic519</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>January 1632 to July 1637.<br/>Determined to make his Personal Rule work, King Charles knows that the one thing that he absolutely must not do is to get involved in any wars, as they cost money and that means another of those vile parliament thingies. Ugh! And the good news is that he does indeed avoid starting any Continental wars.<br/>The not quite so good news is that he instead manages to start a war in his own northern kingdom! Stephen and Jamie are witnesses as the one man who might have stopped the king is sacked, another who tries to stop him is nearly killed, and things get steadily worse until, in St. Giles's Cathedral, Edinburgh, a lady called Jenny Geddes picks up her stool and....</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>James "Bucky" Barnes/Steve Rogers, minor Thor/OMC</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>The British Revolution [3]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1809640</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>15</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Contents</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">
      <li>For <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/MorgDres/gifts">MorgDres</a>, <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/InsatiableFanfictionLurker/gifts">InsatiableFanfictionLurker</a>.</li>



    </ul><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Contents page.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p><span class="u">A.D. 1632</span><br/><i>20. What Goes Around</i><br/><i>21. Dormant Volcanoes</i> <br/><i>22. The Reddest Blood</i></p><p>
  <span class="u">A.D. 1633</span>
  <br/>
  <i>23. Title Roles</i>
  <br/>
  <i>24. Coronated Scot</i>
  <br/>
  <i>25. Passing On The Petition</i>
</p><p>
  <span class="u">A.D. 1634</span>
  <br/>
  <i>26. The Iceman Cometh</i>
  <br/>
  <i>27. Taxes And Treason</i>
</p><p>
  <span class="u">A.D. 1635</span>
  <br/>
  <i>28. Rough Justice</i>
  <br/>
  <i>29. Luke, I Am Your Father</i>
</p><p>
  <span class="u">A.D. 1636</span>
  <br/>
  <i>30. Living On A Prayer</i>
  <br/>
  <i>31. Ships And Short Tempers</i>
</p><p>
  <span class="u">A.D. 1637</span>
  <br/>
  <i>32. The Happiest King</i>
  <br/>
  <i>33. Incoming!</i>
</p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXXXII-MDCXXXVII</p>
</div>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. What Goes Around</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Stephen is moving up in the world while Jamie is moving up in... you make your own end to that sentence! The nobleman also has to contend with peat and problematical astronomers, as well as lovers who go out bathing in the pouring rain! Luckily he still loves his Winter Soldier, even if he is an idiot!<br/>At least he is his idiot!</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <b>January 1632</b>
  <br/>
  <b>Wormit, Fifeshire, SCOTLAND</b>
</p><p>“Your mother has written to you again.”</p><p>Stephen moaned as he lay in their bed. All right, he knew that it was traditional to mark all twelve days of Christmas, but with some horny bastard had insisted on one lot of sex on the first day, two on the second, and.... he was probably never walking again! Certainly never riding any time this week.</p><p>He had ridden more than enough on the Buckmaster! Seventy-eight times, damnation!</p><p>“What about?” he muttered not at all stroppily. “And where is dinner? You said that you were going to fetch it.”</p><p>“Too busy staking my claim on my man”, Jamie grinned. “My beautiful beautiful man.”</p><p>He ran a rough hand over Stephen's chest, and the nobleman yelped as his poor cock tried to rise to the occasion. So not going to happen!</p><p>“I shall fetch you food after I have told you the news”, Jamie said. “First, your mother had a letter from your absent brother John.”</p><p>“Absence makes the heart grow even more thankful”, Stephen muttered. “How much money did the pest want?”</p><p>Jamie chuckled.</p><p>“Apparently he managed to find a woman over there who said that she was prepared to marry him”, he said. “Miracles happen in the New World, it seems! However once they had lived together for a time she tired of him, and petitioned for a divorce. And as she came from one of the principal families of the place, they 'requested' that he move elsewhere.”</p><p>Stephen could hear the quotation marks.</p><p>“As in, at the end of a gun requested”, he guessed. “What is the other news?”</p><p>Jamie hesitated.</p><p>“Adey wants you to become his official heir.”</p><p>“What!”</p><p>Stephen sat up in shock, which was a mistake as various body parts immediately registered their annoyance. His eyes watered but he still managed to stare at his lover even if he did arguably breathe a bit faster.</p><p>“It is over the king's latest wheeze to steal moneys from us his subjects”, Jamie said, openly smirking at his lover's discomfiture, the bastard. “That bastard Noy has dug up another old law that was never removed from the statute books, stating that any lord whose lands were originally a grant from the king and who dies leaving a minority heir, the lands then revert to the Crown and have to be bought back.”</p><p>Stephen saw the problem with that at once. The Court of Wards was corrupt enough; it was supposed to look after any estate where a lord died before his heir came of age, but although the estate was usually passed into the hands of some near male relative the Crown always took a hefty cut, and the chosen guardians often enriched themselves as well. By the time the poor heir came of age his estate might well be 'tottering', as the saying went. If anything happened to Aidan and the king's researchers had found that their estate was one such royal grant, the barony could be devastated.</p><p>“Adey says that it would be a private letter between him and you, making you his heir and for you to only declare it if anything happens to him”, Jamie said. “I suppose I had better go and get you some food now. No energy, the young these days.”</p><p>Stephen pouted. He was only a week – all right, eight days – younger than his lover and he was not that wrecked. He would have complained, but even sitting up in bed had hurt like hell so he did not. Instead he eased himself very carefully into a more comfortable position, groaning all the way.</p><p>Life was wonderful, whatever his broken body said!</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXXXII</p>
</div><p>Some time later – and he really needed to see about finding a more padded chair – a thought managed to find and cross what was left of Stephen's mind. </p><p>“Surely Adey cannot do that?” he asked. “Otherwise every baron who was taxed would do it too.”</p><p>“Only those whose heir is what they call nominative can take that way out”, Jamie explained. “Like with the old laws the king keeps digging up, it has fallen into disuse and the eldest son had usually inherited, but if Charles Stuart can use old laws to levy taxes then he cannot complain if we use the same to avoid them.”</p><p>Stephen looked around the room.</p><p>“No Fraser today?” he wondered. The steward had been smirking far too much of late for his liking, but as he was bigger than Stephen he had very generously said nothing.</p><p>Jamie chuckled.</p><p>“I taught Iain some of my 'military manoeuvres'”, he said with an evil smile. “Your chief steward is still a-bed, in an even worse state that you were this morning. Unlikely as that seems!”</p><p>“Do not get too full of yourself”, Stephen said.</p><p>“All right”, his friend said. “Instead I will just keep filling you! Now, this is the thirteenth day of Christmas so.....”</p><p>Stephen shook in sheer terror!</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXXXII</p>
</div><p>
  <b>February 1632</b>
  <br/>
  <b>Coultra, Fifeshire, SCOTLAND</b>
</p><p>Stephen was visiting his son, who was still all over Jamie. The boy had questionable judgement in his father's opinion.</p><p>“Why are people so cross about this Mr. Galileo, sir?” he asked Stephen.</p><p>“Because he has said that another fellow called Copernicus who thought that the Sun is the centre of the Universe and not the Earth, was right”, Stephen said.</p><p>“Then why did they not just shout at Mr. Copernicus?” Luke asked.</p><p>“He lived about a century ago and was careful enough to only allow his ideas to be published after he was dead”, Jamie said with a smile. “Very wise, especially as he was a member of the Church. They were cross, and Galileo saying he was right has made them crosser.”</p><p>“Is he right, sir?” Luke asked.</p><p>“Possibly”, Jamie said. “You see, over a thousand years ago a Greek fellow called Ptolemy came up with the idea that Earth was the centre of the Universe and worked out where all the other planets¹ should be for many years ahead. When his works were rediscovered around Copernicus's time people could check his figures and found that they were wrong, which in a perfect universe makes no sense. Galileo thinks that the reason they were wrong is that the Sun is at the centre of things, which would make them right².”</p><p>“He sounds clever”, Luke said admiringly. “Like you, sir.”</p><p>Stephen scowled. Not like him, like Jamie. And some bastard had better stop with the smirking!</p><p>“A couple of decades ago he discovered that the planet Jupiter has four moons of its own”, Jamie said, shooting his lover an annoyingly knowing look, “and that set him wondering. If things can go round another planet and not Earth, then clearly everything does not go round us. I am sure you will grow up to be clever too, Luke.”</p><p>“I hope so, sir”, Luke said firmly. “I want to be a credit to my father.”</p><p>Stephen's eyes were suddenly watering. For some reason.</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXXXII</p>
</div><p>“Have you thought about when you are going to tell him?”</p><p>Stephen jumped. They had just started back to Wormit, already soaked in the torrential downpour.</p><p>“Tell him what?” he asked.</p><p>“That you are his father”, Jamie said. “He will soon be old enough to take it on board, and the longer you delay the more chance he will find out some other way; you know as well as I do how fast such news travels. I might guess that he would not be happy."</p><p>“I thought when he was ten, halfway or so to manhood”, Stephen sighed. “And yes, I am dreading it.”</p><p>Jamie nodded and, being a good friend, dropped the subject.</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXXXII</p>
</div><p>
  <b>March 1632</b>
  <br/>
  <b>Wormit, Fifeshire, SCOTLAND</b>
</p><p>Stephen's steward was, he thought, possibly the most taciturn man on the planet. So when Fraser did that awkward cough of his, he wondered what was up.</p><p>“Any problems, Fraser?” he asked.</p><p>“Apart from Mr. Buchanan giving young Iain too many ‘pointers’, my lord”, the behemoth sighed, “yes. The men on the estate are angry about the peat.”</p><p>Stephen knew what he meant. In this climate peat was an important if rather ineffective fuel source, especially this past winter which had seen the Lord attempt to drown Scotland from above. It was not a popular choice of fuel but as a last resort it was important.</p><p>“I suppose they do not like my selling it for money while they go cold”, he said. “It is a pity that they were not more observant.”</p><p>“My lord?”</p><p>“I have sold half of the peat to Edinburgh for profit”, Stephen said, “and gifted the rest to neighbours like Lord Balmerino who does not have any on his lands. With the money I got for the sale, I purchased coal which I will be distributing among my own people. I rather hoped that they would know me better.”</p><p>“Few lords would do that, my lord”, the steward pointed out. “I will spread the word.”</p><p>“Thank you”, Stephen smiled.</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXXXII</p>
</div><p>
  <b>March 1632</b>
  <br/>
  <b>Wormit, Fifeshire, SCOTLAND</b>
</p><p>One of Jamie's curious traits, at least for a soldier, was personal cleanliness. Not that Stephen objected to that; his unmissed brother John could cause flowers to wilt across a room with his allergy to baths, and Stephen always kept himself clean. However Jamie extended that to bathing in the Firth.</p><p>In the pouring rain!</p><p>Stephen was therefore entitled to say 'I told you so' when his normally healthy friend came in wet through and coughing heavily after his latest dip. But he was too good a friend to indulge in such a thing.</p><p>“Just say it”, Jamie sighed. “I am an idiot.”</p><p>“You are”, Stephen said, “but you are my idiot. And I love you for it. Now let us get you out of those wet clothes.”</p><p>Jaime looked hopefully at him.</p><p>“That would be one way to get me warm!” he grinned.</p><p>Stephen just shook his head at his friend. His lover was insatiable!</p><p>Thankfully!</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXXXII</p>
</div><p>
  <i>Notes:</i>
  <br/>
  <i>1) The word means 'wandering' as in the seven lights in Earth's sky – Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, the Sun and the Moon – in contrast with the stars which hardly ever changed their positions. In one of those 'what ifs' of history Galileo had made several recordings of the planet Neptune during his observations of Jupiter, but unluckily it had been at a time that the Earth was in such a place in its own orbit that Neptune had appeared  as still as any other star with the astronomer's primitive telescope.</i>
  <br/>
  <i>2) But not completely right. Copernicus had stuck with the idea of perfectly circular orbits so his figures too were a bit off, though nowhere near as far out as Ptolemy's.</i>
</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXXXII</p>
</div>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Dormant Volcanoes</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>James Buchanan becomes a minor landowner in Scotland as one Cecil Calvert becomes a major one over in the New World, although several thousand miles of distance does not stop the latter from annoying most people in the Three Kingdoms. There is an awkwardly-placed Plantation, someone needs a hug, and Stephen has to cope with his lover in a kilt. Oh the humanity!</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <b>April 1632</b>
  <br/>
  <b>Edinburgh, Midlothian, SCOTLAND</b>
</p><p>Travelling in the seventeenth century was, as has been said before, only for those who absolutely had to do it. Hence Stephen only very occasionally visited the Scottish capital, waiting until he had a whole list of things that needed doing at once that made it worth enduring the dreadful Fifeshire roads and the horrible crossing of the oftentimes stormy Forth. It would usually take a whole lot to get him to undertake such an ordeal.</p><p>Jamie had said that he wanted to buy some Buchanan kilts. That had been all the motivation he had needed!</p><p>“They say that the castle is built on an extinct volcano”, the nobleman said as they walked down the main street¹.</p><p>Jamie snorted in amusement.</p><p>“If the king is stupid enough to meddle with the kirk”, he said, “then he will find that some volcanoes can still erupt!”</p><p>Stephen looked at his friend in surprise.</p><p>“Surely he would not be so foolish?” he asked. “I thought that Menteith was keeping him away from anything so unwise?”</p><p>“The Lord Menteith cannot last forever”, Jamie said, “especially as his land-hungry ways are making him far too many enemies. Reports are that the king is minded to reward his service by granting him the earldom of Strathearn².”</p><p>“Not much of a reward, surely?” Stephen asked. “He is already an earl.”</p><p>“Exactly”, Jamie said. “Of Menteith, which borders Strathearn. He is building up a regional power-base near Perth, and the other barons are grumbling about it.”</p><p>“How do you know all this?” Stephen wondered.</p><p>His friend hesitated.</p><p>“Your mother wrote to me”, he said, sounding oddly unsure of himself. “She wants to grant me an estate near Auchterarder, which was apparently held in trust for me by my parents.”</p><p>Jamie was looking out of the window as he spoke, so he missed Stephen's slight redness. He knew full well who Jamie's parents were, and that that knowledge might one day prove deadly to his lover. </p><p>“That is wonderful!” he said, cheering himself with the thought that this would give his Winter Soldier an income for life and make it unnecessary for him to go back to fighting as a job. “But why did you not tell me?”</p><p>“Because Menteith is claiming the land too”, Jamie said, “and given that he has the king's ear....”</p><p>Ah. Now Stephen saw.</p><p>“What will be will be”, Jamie said, stopping outside a clothing store. “That is it.”</p><p>Stephen followed to where he was pointing, at a rather garish tartan that seemed to have every colour of the rainbow in its chequered pattern. </p><p>“That is the Buchanan tartan?” he asked.</p><p>“One of them³”, Jamie grinned. “And I do not know which will be better; me wearing it or you taking me out of it!”</p><p>And with that the bastard walked into the shop, leaving Stephen.... well, he was not following him until he had adjusted himself somewhat. Honestly, his lover was a complete bastard of the first order!</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXXXII</p>
</div><p>Said bastard purchased five³ of the things - five damnation! Two standard Buchanan kilts, a dress kilt for special occasions, a Leny one from his mother's branch of the family and a hunting tartan. He really was trying to kill his lover. Well, Stephen thought, just let him try!</p><p>Please let him try!</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXXXII</p>
</div><p>
  <b>May 1632</b>
  <br/>
  <b>Wormit, Fifeshire, SCOTLAND</b>
</p><p>Although he was wonderfully happy (if occasionally also impossibly sore!) with Jamie around, there were certain things that still had the power to make Stephen uneasy. One was any news of war, like he had received today.</p><p>“Good news for the Protestant cause”, Jamie smiled. “Count Tilly, one of the most able Imperial generals, has been defeated by King Gustavus and has subsequently succumbed to his wounds. A grievous loss to the Emperor, were he wise enough to see it.”</p><p>“Why do you say that?” Stephen asked. They would normally have been about the estate today but a heavy downpour had made them opt to stay in and wait until tomorrow. </p><p>“Emperor Ferdinand is not only cruel to Protestants but, like our own king, unwise in those he calls friend”, Jamie said. “He fears any man who becomes successful and then fails to support him within seconds of his being told what to do next. Now that he has lost Tully he will be turning his attention to Wallenstein, fearing that he might betray him in some way.”</p><p>“Would he?” Stephen asked dubiously.</p><p>“Only if he thinks that the Emperor does not trust him, and his own position is in danger”, Jamie said. “Which situation the idiot in Vienna might well bring about by his own actions.”</p><p>Stephen hesitated before saying what he was thinking.</p><p>“Do you miss it?” he asked carefully. “The fighting, the battles and all?”</p><p>“I was good at it”, Jamie said, “but when you see what happened at Magdeburg it makes you never want to see another battle as long as you live.”</p><p>He looked so down that Stephen went over and hugged him. The two men just stood there holding each other, as the spring rains beat steadily on the window.</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXXXII</p>
</div><p>
  <b>May 1632</b>
  <br/>
  <b>Dundee, Forfarshire, SCOTLAND</b>
</p><p>Stephen and Jamie had rowed over to Dundee for the day, and to see what news there was in the world.</p><p>“A nice inheritance”, Jamie said as they sat down in one of the taverns. “Lucky young Cecil Calvert⁴; his father pegging out like that just after the king had given him a charter to found that rare thing, a new English colony that will upset people over here.”</p><p>“Why will it do that?” Stephen asked. “Surely it is just compensation for the destruction of Baltimore by those vile Barbary pirates?”</p><p>“His main Irish lands were far from Munster, up in Longford”, Jamie said. “And this new colony will be for Catholics, not Protestants; it is to be named Maryland after the most ardent Catholic at court, Her Majesty the Queen. I can see why we need a colony to hem in the Dutch, but the common people will not see it that way.”</p><p>“Kings rarely care about what the common people think”, Stephen observed.</p><p>“But a wise ruler knows to make an effort”, Jamie said. “It is like Great Elizabeth who kept the judges in fear of her; it was a lot of effort but it kept the bulk of the people onside. When the first Armada came the Catholics might be hopeful of its success but they did not lift a finger to help it. They stuck with what they knew.”</p><p>“Everyone knows that this king is just an idiot”, Stephen sighed. “I wonder what fool thing he will do next?”</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXXXII</p>
</div><p>
  <b>June 1632</b>
  <br/>
  <b>Wormit, Fifeshire, SCOTLAND</b>
</p><p>Jamie stared suspiciously at the object that his friend was holding in his hand before he recognized it.</p><p>“Please tell me that you did not accept it for anything!” he exclaimed.</p><p>Stephen chuckled at his friend's annoyance.</p><p>“One of my tenants was forced to take it when over in Dundee”, he said. “With a smithy that we shall not be having any dealings with in future, that is for sure. This is Billy Alexander's⁵ famous copper coinage, which is about as popular in Scotland as the king just now.”</p><p>“Especially after he betrayed this nation over Nova Scotia”, Jamie agreed. “I suppose signing those few remaining settlers over to the French, he felt he had to compensate Stirling in some way. And what better way that at someone else's expense.”</p><p>Stephen frowned before he remembered.</p><p>“Yes, the king made him Viscount Stirling two years back”, he said. “Two mess-ups for the price of one; the king has angered people up here by suppressing their colonial aspirations then made them poorer by trying to get them to use cheap coins. And failing.”</p><p>“Failing?” Jamie asked.</p><p>“We do not know now much Stirling paid for the privilege”, Stephen said, “but the coins have been a failure. No-one wants them around.”</p><p>“Like the king”, Jamie smiled.</p><p>“So our useless monarch has had to buy him out”, Stephen said. “Another thing which had lost him money and alienated even more people. He is not doing well.”</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXXXII</p>
</div><p>
  <b>July 1632</b>
  <br/>
  <b>Wormit, Fifeshire, SCOTLAND</b>
</p><p>“The news from London is that the king is not happy”, Jamie said as they lay together that morning.</p><p>“Why?” Stephen asked disinterestedly. “Has someone failed to utter enough Hail Marys in the queen's presence? How very dreadful!”</p><p>He yelped as Jamie elbowed him, then sighed as the soldier eased his naked body on top of him. For all that he was so impressively muscular Jamie weighed very little. It must have been the love, the nobleman thought with a smile.</p><p>“The Virginia colonists have established a new settlement at a place called Middle Plantation⁶”, he said. “Close to the border where Baltimore wished to establish his refuge for Catholics, so setting up the New World very nicely for its own set of religious wars likely just in time for when our own start out.”</p><p>Stephen would have reproved his lover for his cynicism, but the Buckmaster was already rock-hard so.... waste not want not.</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXXXII</p>
</div><p>Stephen did not go out that day. Of the house or the bedroom!</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXXXII</p>
</div><p>
  <i>Notes:</i>
  <br/>
  <i>1) Not the famous Princes Street, which came into existence when the centre of town was rebuilt in 1770.</i>
  <br/>
  <i>2) Earldoms had a strict 'pecking order'. Strathearn (the area immediately west of Perth) was top-rank, Menteith (the next area west, around Dunblane and Callander) was middle-rank, and Airth (a small area between Stirling and Falkirk) was low-rank. William Graham's family had held the earldom many years before but had lost it. Notably the current Earl of Strathearn is as of 2021 the Queen's grandson William, Duke of Cambridge.</i>
  <br/>
  <i>3) A bit of artistic license, as specific clan kilts only became a thing during Victorian times with the resurgence of interest in matters Caledonian.</i>
  <br/>
  <i>4) Cecil Calvert (b. 1605, so only three years older than our heroes). His father's grant had to be revised when it was learned that the Virginians had already colonized the southern tip of the Delmarva Peninsula, and a subsequent dispute with William Penn who founded Pennsylvania lasted for eighty years (1683-1763) and shaped the modern borders of five modern states (PA, MD, NJ, DE, WV). Part of the eventual compromise was the famous Mason-Dixon line.</i>
  <br/>
  <i>5) Sir William Alexander (b. 1567). Secretary of State for Scotland since 1626 but largely ineffectual, the late King James had granted him a huge area of the New World that included modern-day Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and most of Maine. As its name suggests Nova Scotia or New Scotland was that country’s first attempt to join the colonial race, but the French were too well established there so he sold out to them.</i>
  <br/>
  <i>6) Renamed Williamsburg in 1689 in honour of King William The Third, Charles Stuart's nephew. The first Maryland settlement appeared soon after this chapter is set at nearby St. Mary's City; settlers quickly expanded up Chesapeake Bay to found a second Baltimore.</i>
</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXXXII</p>
</div>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. The Reddest Blood</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>The political situation in Scotland turns on who has the reddest blood, as everyone is suddenly interested in one of the king's ancestors from over two centuries ago. The Dutch continue to defy the odds and whip the Spanish as their war of independence approaches the middle of its seventh decade, while Sweden sees victory, defeat and disaster all in the same year. Jamie is very well-read (perhaps unfortunately for his lover!) while King Charles proves that not only is he an idiot but also a vindictive idiot.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <b>August 1632</b>
  <br/>
  <b>Wormit, Fifeshire, SCOTLAND</b>
</p><p>It still troubled Stephen (though he tried not to say as much) that if the tide of the Continental War turned against the Protestants then his lover might well feel inclined to rejoin the front line. Yes, that thought troubled him deeply.</p><p>Although not just now, as Jamie had taken to marking any piece of good news from the Continent in his own way. Namely one that left his lover unsure as to which way was up, and also whether or not he should sack his senior steward for smirking too much! Or worse, get Jamie to give Chatton some more of his 'ideas'!</p><p>“Great news that the Dutch have taken Maastricht”, Jamie said far too loudly across the dinner-table. </p><p>Stephen winced.</p><p><i>”Must</i> you be so loud?” he groaned.</p><p>“He must!” Fraser grinned. “Either that or a sign on the stairs to keep away while the master of the house is 'busy'.”</p><p>Stephen would have glared at him, but that would have taken too much effort. It had been bad enough at the start of the month when a sudden downpour had damaged the roof of Fraser's cottage and Jamie had suggested that he and Chatton move into the main house 'so all the sex maniacs can be under one roof'. And even though Stephen had been inclined to say yes, his lover had still felt the need to 'persuade' him properly.</p><p>News of Maastricht had reached them two days later. And even his new padded chair could only do so much for Stephen's poor backside.</p><p>He had terrible friends!</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXXXII</p>
</div><p>
  <b>September 1632</b>
  <br/>
  <b>Wormit, Fifeshire, SCOTLAND</b>
</p><p>The news from the Continent today was not good. The Swedish army had suffered a reverse at a place called Alte Veste, and for a moment Stephen had feared that his lover might indeed wish to head off and rejoin his old companions in battle. Fortunately the soldier had instead settled for working his disappointment out on his lover. The nobleman felt that him being treated like a sex toy regardless of which side was winning in this interminable war was wrong in some way, but he had not yet got round to putting his objections into words. </p><p>Mostly because after being on the receiving end of the mighty Buckmaster, words were damn difficult! </p><p>There was a surprise development that month too, when Stephen received a letter from Thor. Given the dangers of communicating in these times, he was impressed (and also a little disgusted) as to just how the person to whom he may or may not have been related conveyed how broken he was, such that he had had to have Brennus rewrite the letter 'because what I wrote from where I was sat the first time was unreadable!'. The nobleman knew how he felt and that had better damn well not be another smirk from someone across the table or... he would not he happy!</p><p>Huffing his annoyance and wondering just how long it would be before he too was in such a state (hopefully not that long), Stephen read on. Thor had taken on the running of the county Trained Bands presumably because no-one else had wanted to, 'and thanks to some horn-dog, I know all about complex manoeuvres'. Quipping that despite someone’s best efforts he was unlikely to father any offspring, he had resigned his place as heir to their father's few lands to his younger brother Baldur. And the latter was now married to a distant cousin of the king's, Lady Anne Stewart who – the writing became noticeably shaky at this point – shared her new mother-in-law's passion for 'historical curiosities'!</p><p>Stephen made a mental note to not go within a hundred miles of Oxfordshire any time soon!</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXXXII</p>
</div><p>
  <b>October 1632</b>
  <br/>
  <b>Coultra, Fifeshire, SCOTLAND</b>
</p><p>“Sir, what is the Star Chamber?”</p><p>Stephen bit back a smile at his son's earnestness. Although if some smirking soldier over there (who said son continued to show poor taste over being far too fond of) continued to smirk like that, then a certain smirking soldier would be sleeping alone tonight.</p><p>“It is a high court, used to try very important people”, the nobleman told his son. “They meet in a chamber with a star design in the ceiling, hence the name. It used to be very highly regarded under Great Elizabeth because it targeted all rich people who committed crimes, and made them face justice when they might have thought that they were rich enough to have avoided it.”</p><p>“Why 'used to be', sir?” the boy asked at once.</p><p>Stephen felt proud that his son had immediately spotted the evasion.</p><p>“The current king uses it only to target the people that he himself does not like”, he explained, “but when his friends commit worse crimes, the Chamber refuses to hear their cases. Or worse, drags things out for so long that the complainant runs out of money; law is I am afraid not cheap. It has also started sticking its nose into things that do not concern it, hence this ban on new books. It does the king no favours at all because everyone is saying, quite correctly, that he has only done it because his Spanish friends complained about books that criticize them.”</p><p>“This king does not like being criticized”, Jamie said. “Few people do, but he refuses to accept any criticism. That was one of the things that made Elizabeth such a successful ruler; she knew that she had deficiencies in some areas and always allowed her advisers to speak plainly without fear of the consequences, so rarely made mistakes. No-one at court would dare tell this king that he was wrong, that is for sure.”</p><p>“It must be nice to be so powerful”, Luke said dreamily.</p><p>“Really?” Jamie asked. “Suppose that your foolish actions were going to cause a revolt or even a revolution, but no-one wanted to tell you that because they feared for their own position at court. The only man who might tell the king that to his face is Wentworth, which is why he is banished to the North of England.”</p><p>Stephen could not but agree with his friend there. Thankfully the President of the North had thus far shown little interest in Northumberland, possibly because the Greys and the Percies were themselves powerful enough to raise a fuss if he stuck so much as the tip of his nose across the Tyne. He hoped all was well with Aidan who, he knew, was unlike him trapped with someone he hated.</p><p>Jamie caught him looking thoughtful and, unseen by Luke, ran his tongue briefly around his lips and gave him a certain look that.... the man was so bad!</p><p>Or hopefully he would be once they were home!</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXXXII</p>
</div><p>Stephen was for some reason hurrying when they started back to Wormit.</p><p>“I picked up some useful gossip while we were there”, Jamie said, looking oddly serious for him. “Mac's nephew works on Balmerino's estate, and he heard that the Lord Menteith publicly claimed he has the reddest blood in Scotland.”</p><p>Stephen looked at him in surprise.</p><p>“That is I suppose arguable”, he said, “as he has a legitimate claim to the Scottish throne after a regal eighth cousin who we all know does not tolerate criticism. So?”</p><p>“Because Menteith's enemies will be rushing to tell the king about it”, Jamie said, “if they are not on their way to London already. We both know how the Stuarts respond to any rival claimant and that is very badly, especially one to a throne that the current incumbent clearly has little regard for. The likes of Traquair will claim that Menteith's land grabs are to set him up to take the throne here one day.”</p><p>Stephen was reminded again of his lover's own claim to the thrones of the Three Kingdoms. He had never seen the king but from the reports of his appearance, Jamie looked far more regal than him. Hopefully that would never be an issue.</p><p>“Even King Charles would not be stupid enough to believe that!” Stephen said.</p><p>His friend just looked at him. Stephen scowled; the fellow had an annoying habit of being right far too often, damn him!</p><p>“His claim would be inferior to the king's anyway”, Stephen went on. “Not that anyone would take it seriously.”</p><p>“Unless the king made himself so unpopular that people started looking for an alternative”, Jamie retorted, “which given Charles Stuart's tendency to point the arquebus at his foot then fire, is not an impossibility. We all know that this king has only dropped unpopular policies like Revocation and reform of the kirk because Menteith has, very wisely, steered him away from such dangerous waters. If he goes, the king will press ahead with one or both of them in a country some four hundred miles from his capital. The reaction will not be good. Besides, Menteith's claim is stronger than it looks – indeed, it may be better than that of one Charles Stuart!”</p><p>“How?” Stephen asked, surprised.</p><p>“He and the king are both descended from the first Stuart king, Robert the Second¹”, Jamie said. “Charles Stuart from that king's first marriage and Menteith from his second.”</p><p>“First marriages trump second ones”, Stephen said. “Everyone knows that.”</p><p>“Yes”, Jamie said, “but that first marriage was a bit odd. It was legally questionable in some way, such that he later had to remarry her and get the Pope to grant what you might call retrospective legitimacy – I bet he had to pay a pretty penny for that! –  so the sons from that marriage could inherit. Among those ten was our current excuse for a king’s ancestor, Robert the Third. The Grahams, the likes of Menteith and your cousin Montrose, descend from the second marriage with Menteith's the senior line.”</p><p>“I see”, Stephen said. “Menteith's enemies will suggest his argument could be that now Scotland is Protestant, the Pope's permission no longer applies so all the kings since were illegitimate. A bit of a stretch, surely?”</p><p>“This is Charles Stuart”, Jamie said grimly. “He will believe it; Menteith's enemies will see to that.”</p><p>“How do you know all this?” Stephen asked curiously.</p><p>“It is no good fighting unless you know what you are fighting for”, Jamie said, a tad sententiously Stephen thought, “and sometimes knowledge of how people think and act can avert wars. Also, reading is good for you. That book from India I showed you – the 'Kama Sutra', remember?”</p><p>Stephen blushed. He really needed to stop encouraging his friend to read things like that.</p><p>Some time.</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXXXII</p>
</div><p>
  <b>December 1632</b>
  <br/>
  <b>Wormit, Fifeshire, SCOTLAND</b>
</p><p>“I cannot believe it!” Stephen exclaimed. “I know that the king hated Eliot while he was alive, but to refuse the family his body now that he is dead? That is just wrong!”</p><p>“So the king has done something stupid”, Jamie said, looking out of the window. “I see the sky is still blue. No change there, either.”</p><p>Stephen rolled his eyes at him.</p><p>“The king has generated a whole load of bad feeling for nothing”, he said. “I know that he always blamed Eliot for Buckingham's death, but no-one seriously thinks that Felton was inspired by some badly-timed speech he almost certainly never heard. And many people are saying that his death when he had barely turned forty was suspicious, which given that he was in the king's custody will make people assume the worst.”</p><p>“With this king the worst is too often correct”, Jamie said, still looking out of the window.</p><p>“Was there bad news in your own letter?” Stephen asked.</p><p>Jamie sighed.</p><p>“King Gustavus is dead”, he said heavily. “Killed at Lutzen; his forces won the battle but Sweden falls to his six-year-old daughter Christina. Whether Stockholm will wish to continue the war, who knows?”</p><p>He left the window and came across to join his friend in his huge chair, pulling him into an embrace. Into which Stephen went willingly.</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXXXII</p>
</div><p>
  <i>Notes:</i>
  <br/>
  <i>1) King Robert the Second, first king of the House of Stewart who ruled from 1371 to 1390. A slippery character, he was nephew to and heir of the Bruce king David the Second, whom he had abandoned when the Scots lost the Battle of Neville's Cross in 1346 and then done little (nothing) to get him back. At the time of the (re-)marriage in 1347 he still looked unlikely to outlive his uncle being eight years older yet did so by nearly two decades, although his reign was dogged with constant infighting between his powerful sons. His 'try before you buy' wife was Elizabeth Mure  by whom he had had four sons and six daughters; he had four children by his second wife of whom the eldest, David Earl of Strathearn, was Menteith's ancestor, as well as at least twelve illegitimate children!</i>
</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXXXII</p>
</div>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0005"><h2>5. Title Roles</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>A lot of sheep drop dead. Stephen becomes an uncle for the third time, loses a(nother) wager, suffers a familial loss that is not that much of a loss, and learns that Scotland is to to be 'blessed' with a royal visit. And the Earl of Menteith is insulted with a new title.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <b>January 1633</b>
  <br/>
  <b>Wormit, Fifeshire, SCOTLAND</b>
</p><p>“I am an uncle again. A boy, to be called Aelfric.”</p><p>Jaime ruffled his lover's hair and ran a calloused hand down his chest, smirking possibly a tad too much at the suddenly increased breathing.</p><p>“Sexy times to celebrate?” he grinned.</p><p>“Like you need an excuse!” Stephen muttered. “Especially now that we have the place to ourselves.”</p><p>At Jamie's instigation he had gone over to look at his steward's cottage and had not been impressed. He had told Fraser and Chatton that they were moving into the house for some months until he could have the place almost totally rebuilt when the better weather came. He smiled as he remembered the steward's pleasure, followed immediately by the horrified look as his lover whispered loudly that all that extra room gave him lots of ideas! Thankfully the house was large enough for the two wings to be far enough apart so that 'noises' (ahem!) did not travel.</p><p>Yuletide had been most memorable. Stephen would be twenty-five this year - <i>if he made it to his birthday!</i></p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXXXIII</p>
</div><p>
  <b>January 1633</b>
  <br/>
  <b>Wormit, Fifeshire, SCOTLAND</b>
</p><p>A few days later there was a development on the Scottish political scene. Unexpected in some ways but not in others.</p><p>“Ouch!”</p><p>Jamie looked at his lover in what was clearly mock surprise.</p><p>“I was not that rough last night”, he grinned. “But if you need me to make it up now....”</p><p>“I am amazed you had the time to fight, the way you always think of sex”, Stephen sighed. “No, it is poor old Menteith. The king has created him Earl of Airth.”</p><p>“Ouch!”</p><p>“I suppose he will continue as top judge”, Stephen said, “but I cannot see how he can as the king's main advisor. And there is more. Traquair has been elevated to an earldom in the same proclamation, which means that the king now favours him. That idiot Stirling too, which given the recent coin fiasco will not go down well.”</p><p>“More fool the king on both those”, Jamie said shortly. “Johnnie Stewart is only after one thing, money, and he will serve his master ill in the long run.”</p><p>“This is good for you, though”, Stephen said. “It means that you can get that estate now.”</p><p>“You only want me for my money”, Jamie teased. “Well, that and my mighty Buckmaster. Shall we go and celebrate?”</p><p>Stephen sighed. His lover was really insatiable and.... and why was he sat there thinking when that gorgeous arse was heading out of the door?</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXXXIII</p>
</div><p>
  <b>February 1633</b>
  <br/>
  <b>Wormit, Fifeshire, SCOTLAND</b>
</p><p>“Told you so.”</p><p>Stephen scowled at his lover.</p><p>“Just because the king has not yet had time to react”, he said. “He may be sending aid any day now.”</p><p>“A day with the loser doing whatever the winner wants says does not”, Jamie shot back.</p><p>Stephen scowled. He was strongly tempted to take that bet, even though the last time had had lost one like it he had had to spend a(nother) whole day in bed recovering. He would not be so foolish this time!</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXXXIII</p>
</div><p>
  <b>February 1633</b>
  <br/>
  <b>Wormit, Fifeshire, SCOTLAND</b>
</p><p>Two weeks later found Stephen moaning as he tried to find a position in bed that did not have his muscles screaming in protest. If modern science ever did find a way to get men pregnant, then he might yet beat his cousin Thor after what he had just gone through with his insatiable lover.</p><p>The cause of their wager had been the bitter frost a fortnight ago that had struck southern Scotland and killed hundreds of sheep; Stephen had feared for his family just across the Border but Aidan had written to him that it had been much less severe in England although a number of cases of winter flu had hit the estate hard. He had seemed oddly distracted which was not like him, but having accepted the wager and said that he was sure the king would not just abandon his Scottish subjects at this terrible time, Stephen had had rather more on his mind these past two weeks while the king had annoyingly gone and done almost nothing.</p><p>Almost nothing. At a time when his Scottish subjects were expecting some help from him, the king had deemed this the ideal moment to tell everyone through his new mouthpiece Traquair that he was pressing ahead with Revocation¹ after all, so expected them to give up their lands to the Church because that was what he wanted. After all, the few Scottish barons with him England had led by example, and certainly not because the king had threatened to dismiss them from court if they had not. Perish the thought!</p><p>To prove that he could make a bad situation worse, the king had also informed his barons here that he in no way considered himself bound to respect his father's promise when he had persuaded the Scottish kirk to accept back bishops, so would be elevating them to positions of authority in his government in Edinburgh. As God's representative on Earth he could clearly not be bound by such piffling things as a king's sworn word. Strangely this too had not been well received – <i>although Stephen had certainly received something!</i></p><p>To cap it all it had been announced that this was the year in which the king would come to Scotland for his coronation. A mere eight years into his reign and seven after his English coronation, something that many had remarked on. Stephen feared that the idiot monarch might well contrive to make a bad situation worse by his actions, since that was all he seemed capable of.</p><p>The nobleman rolled onto his side and yelped in agony, before glaring at the smirking Adonis next to him.</p><p>“I hate you!” he grumbled.</p><p>“We can have another wager when the king comes this summer”, Jamie grinned brightly. “You might just have recovered by then!”</p><p>Stephen moaned. This was his life?</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXXXIII</p>
</div><p>
  <b>February 1633</b>
  <br/>
  <b>Wormit, Fifeshire, SCOTLAND</b>
</p><p>A few days later and coincidentally when he could sit down without his eyes watering, Stephen found out just what had been preoccupying his brother down in England. After the birth of Aelfric in December, his unpleasant sister-in-law had decided to reward herself with a trip to Newcastle to do some shopping. And, it had later emerged, to visit a male brothel. She had caught something there which had laid her low, then the winter flu that Aidan had mentioned had proven too much for her. </p><p>Stephen supposed that he should have mourned, but Patty had never liked him and had made his brother's life miserable. Plus he was not a hypocrite, so he did not. He only hoped that Aidan could find someone better and kinder, who might help him raise his sons and daughter. Otherwise it might end up being left to his mother who... Lord help the poor children!</p><p>“A male brothel”, Jamie mused when he told him. “Is it still open, perchance?”</p><p>Stephen glared at him.</p><p>“Like you need more opportunities for sex!” he said shortly.</p><p>“Very true”, Jamie agreed. “Like that time I folded your legs right back over your head and fucked you so hard you screamed like a girl.”</p><p>Stephen stared at him in confusion.</p><p>“When was that?” he asked. </p><p>Jamie looked across at the old grandfather clock.</p><p>“About five minutes from now”, he grinned. “Three if you get a move on....”</p><p>Stephen was already gone.</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXXXIII</p>
</div><p>It was four minutes. And yes, Stephen did scream like a girl.</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXXXIII</p>
</div><p>
  <b>March 1633</b>
  <br/>
  <b>Wormit, Fifeshire, SCOTLAND</b>
</p><p>Jamie chuckled as he read his latest letter.</p><p>“What is it?” Stephen asked.</p><p>“You are not going to have to worry about that land-hungry Wentworth as President of the North any more”, he said.</p><p>“Why?” Stephen asked. “Has he been dismissed or something? Surely not?”</p><p>His lover shook his head.</p><p>“No”, he said. “But he has made one too many enemies, and the king has appointed him Lord Lieutenant of Ireland as well, so he will be off to Dublin. A seeming promotion, but another foolish move by our useless king.”</p><p>“Why do you say that?” Stephen asked. “He has run the North well enough.”</p><p>“And he may even make a success out of the mess that is Ireland”, Jamie said. “No, his enemies have thought ahead here. He had his eye on the Treasury and could have made such a success of that, such that he might have freed the king from ever needing to call a parliament again. But all those courtiers with their snouts in the royal trough conspired to stop it. They likely warned the king that Wentworth's fabled efficiency would, if brought to the capital, lead to a lot more work for their master. We all know how lazy he is.”</p><p>“Cynical”, Stephen muttered.</p><p>“I can always ask Diana to confirm or deny it if you wish to make it another wager....”</p><p>“Hell no!”</p><p>The soldier chuckled.</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXXXIII</p>
</div>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0006"><h2>6. Coronated Scot</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>King Charles finally finds time to fit in his Scottish coronation – only eight years late! – in the certain belief that his Northern subjects will welcome him with open arms and do everything that he wants without question. He then contrives to upset the Scots barons even more, though of course he 'misses' seeing that. Meanwhile Stephen acquires a new cousin and Jamie chooses a strange moment to talk about physics.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <b>April 1633</b>
  <br/>
  <b>Wormit, Fifeshire, SCOTLAND</b>
</p><p>“Well colour me astonished!” Jamie grinned as he rubbed his naked body up against his lover’s broken one. “The Holy Catholic Church has actually found Galileo guilty and declared his views heretical. Who could have thought it?”</p><p>Stephen groaned as his Winter Soldier's actions again caused his blood to head south, making his head hurt. Like the rest of his body.</p><p>“How can you read and do that at the same time?” he groaned.</p><p>“Soldiers are good at multi-tasking”, Jamie grinned. “Helps to keep us alive for one thing, and makes us the best lovers!”</p><p>Stephen had to admit that the latter was true there. He never knew whether an evening would involve Jamie worshipping his body and making him come so hard that he was left shattered, or a rough hard fuck that..... yes,  made him come so hard that he was left shattered. Either way he was damn lucky!</p><p>“Like I told Luke, Gally thinks that everything revolves around the Sun”, Jamie smiled, toying with his lover's cock which.... no, not going to happen. “So the new order of things is Mercury....”</p><p>He did something to Stephen's cock that, incredibly, did start to make him hard again. The nobleman moaned as his body convulsed, then again as the bastard stopped and let things settle again.</p><p>“Venus.....”</p><p>Stephen's eyes opened wide. Oh no!</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXXXIII</p>
</div><p>Jamie had to bring up dinner, and his lover generously forgave him that annoying smile as he helped him upright so he could eat. Although if he smirked, Stephen would <i>not</i> be happy.</p><p>Well, nowhere near as happy as he was now, that was. Thank the Lord that the planets stopped at Saturn!</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXXXIII</p>
</div><p>
  <b>June 1633</b>
  <br/>
  <b>Wormit, Fifeshire, SCOTLAND</b>
</p><p>“It smells, Stevie.”</p><p>Stephen looked at his friend in surprise.</p><p>“What?” he asked.</p><p>“The king on his way to Scotland, and Traquair has suddenly announced changes in the counties”, Jamie said. “Sutherland has been formally made a county; that will give the king more votes in the Catholic North. And Tarbertshire¹ is to be merged into Argyllshire which will annoy Lorne²; less votes from his lands. Though at least he can focus his efforts against those Irish pirates.”</p><p>“Ulster is where the Scots came from a millennium past”, Stephen said, “and where many of our countrymen settled at the late king's request in recent decades. Of course his son does not like their terrible Presbyterianism.”</p><p>“This king does not like a lot of things”, Jamie said shortly. “I fear that when he comes to Scotland, he will likely say and so something stupid.”</p><p>“I do not take wagers on certainties”, Stephen smiled.</p><p>Jamie just looked at him. The nobleman sighed and headed for the door. Honestly, his lover was utterly insatiable!</p><p>Praise the Lord!</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXXXIII</p>
</div><p>
  <b>July 1633</b>
  <br/>
  <b>Edinburgh, Midlothian, SCOTLAND</b>
</p><p>Stephen had sometimes thought that it was a bit annoying being only a bit-part player in Scottish politics, his being the younger brother of an English lord who held a few number of estates even if it was in one of the richer parts of Scotland. But given the scene before him, he was beginning to reassess that opinion.</p><p>“A right short-arse, is he not?”</p><p>Stephen glared at the reprehensible fellow beside him. They had come to the capital on business and also to see the king in his Scottish parliament, but he could not take his horny bastard of a lover anywhere. Jamie had suggested finding a quiet room somewhere and 'marking the occasion'.</p><p>Which was why a certain nobleman had had to raise his collar in order to hide the love-bite!</p><p>“Not an impressive figure”, he admitted, “but even I cannot believe he is actually writing down the names of those who dare to speak against him. He is going to win no friends that way.”</p><p>“Charles Stuart is God's representative on Earth”, Jamie quipped. “He does not care for friends. His barons will do what he says or lump it. And what better way to annoy them further by informing them that his Scottish coronation will use the English liturgy, oh and by the way here are another load of reforms that I want passed in the kirk. Idiot!”</p><p>Stephen sighed and watched as the king jotted down another name. Fool man!</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXXXIII</p>
</div><p>Later that day while Stephen and Jamie were buying some new clothes, there was a further development. This being Edinburgh they got to hear about it not long after they had left the shop.</p><p>“He has gone too far this time!” Jamie protested. “A vote on something as trifling as what priests wear goes against him – so he gets the clerk to announce that he has won, then tells parliament that the only way they can overturn it is to accuse the fellow of a capital crime so that he would be hung if found guilty. They may have backed away this time but they will remember this when he is four hundred miles away.”</p><p>“The coronation will be interesting”, Stephen agreed. “I wonder how many lords will find themselves 'indisposed and unable to attend. This king might find it quicker to get a list of all the barons in Scotland when it comes to people that he has offended. Do you wish to attend?”</p><p>“Why?” Jamie grinned. “I have the king of my heart already.”</p><p>Stephen blushed fiercely. His lover was such a sap at times!</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXXXIII</p>
</div><p>
  <b>July 1633</b>
  <br/>
  <b>Edinburgh, Midlothian, SCOTLAND</b>
</p><p>It was a few days later. Stephen was not surprised to learn that the coronation had been attended by few Scottish lords, and those primarily the ones who spent most of their time with the king in England. He doubted very much that Charles Stuart would get the message though, if only because no-one was (yet) hitting him over the head with it!</p><p>He blamed his Winter Soldier for making him have thoughts like that.</p><p>“The important thing in all this will be Traquair”, his lover said when he told him about it.</p><p>“Why?” Stephen asked.</p><p>“Unlike Menteith, his only concern is to keep the king far away in England while he uses his new position to make money”, Jamie said. “So he will not tell him anything to upset him – like, say, your Scottish barons hate your guts and are probably plotting rebellion.”</p><p>Stephen stared at him.</p><p>“Rebellion?” he said. “Surely it will not come to that?”</p><p>“This king is determined to pursue reform of the kirk”, Jamie said, “and he thinks that he has the support to do it. But he has upset just about everybody; the barons hate him because of that and Revocation, while the gentry who he thinks to raise up as a counterbalance to the barons – they love the kirk far more than the possibility of power. The more Traquair tells his master that everything is fine, the more likely it is that the king will think he has the leeway to do something stupid. And when he does, the people will not take it.”</p><p>“But who would be their leader?” Stephen wondered. “It is not like there is some handy alternative to the Stuarts ready and waiting, especially now that Menteith has stepped back. Unless they are seriously considering following the Dutch and becoming a republic?”</p><p>An image of his lover as a handsome King James the Seventh and Second seated on the throne rose annoyingly into his mind, but he managed to push it down.</p><p>“Perhaps better that than rule by a king who tries to destroy their country”, Jamie said, looking curiously at his distracted friend. “There is something else in this; your own England. The king has spent years now annoying the gentry there with his snide taxes and levies; I know that he claims they are all legal but they are <i>seen</i> as unfair and that is what matters. If Scotland rebels, the king will try to raise an English army to suppress them. He will find that rather more difficult that he expects, and I would wager that he will be both shocked and surprised at that.”</p><p>Stephen was about to agree when he saw it.</p><p>“Not another wager!” he said firmly. “I barely survived losing the last one!”</p><p>“But think of the kudos”, Jamie grinned. “'Here lies Stephen Roger Amerike, who died with a smile on his face – even if they found it 'hard' to close the coffin lid!'”</p><p>Stephen swatted at the pest.</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXXXIII</p>
</div><p>
  <b>August 1633</b>
  <br/>
  <b>Wormit, Fifeshire, SCOTLAND</b>
</p><p>Another letter from my cousin Thor”, Stephen said as he opened said missive. “Prepare yourself; it is Bren's writing so he has likely sexed my poor cousin to a point where he cannot hold a pen. Again.”</p><p>“We must exchange ideas, Bren and I”, Jamie muttered. “What with Fraser and Chatton, we might even write a book!”</p><p>Stephen rolled his eyes at him.</p><p>“It looks like he is already exchanging ideas with someone down there”, he said as he read the letter. “Baldur's wife has just had a son, to be named Odin. And Bren writes that she is doing to poor Bal what he does to Thor, if with rather different results.”</p><p>“I am sure that many women would like for men to be able to get pregnant, and share the load”, Jamie smiled. “But that will never happen.”</p><p>“If it could, I would be rivalling poor Thor to be the first”, Stephen sighed. He had had a particularly enthusiastic wake-up call from his lover that morning, and that had been the morning gone as far as he had been concerned. “Also  George Abbot is dead.”</p><p>Jamie looked confused for a moment before he placed the name.</p><p>“Probably a blessed relief for the poor old fellow”, he sighed. “I would wager that Laud had his feet under the primate's table before the funeral was planned.”</p><p>That was cruel, Stephen thought, but probably true. Now Laud would likely push ahead with his Arminian³ reforms in England, which might incite a rebellion down there before one broke out in Scotland. It was all a mess, and it did not look to get better any time soon.</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXXXIII</p>
</div><p>
  <i>Notes:</i>
  <br/>
  <i>1) A county comprising the long peninsula of Knapdale and Kintyre, as well as the Inner Hebridean islands of Islay, Jura and Colonsay. A truly beautiful yet rarely visited area; Kintyre in particular would become significant later in the story as it stretched to within twelve miles of the Irish coast.</i>
  <br/>
  <i>2) Archibald Campbell, Earl of Argyll. Born in 1607 so a year older than Jamie and Stephen. His father of the same name was still alive but upon converting to Catholicism the latter had resigned all his lands to his son and had fled abroad to escape his debts, so technically Archie Junior would remain just Lord Lorne until his father's death in 1638. The new earl will also be Important in the story. Like Montrose the title was later elevated to a dukedom; as od 2021 the current holder is Duke Torquhil Campbell (b. 1968) who is a direct descendant of Lorne.</i>
  <br/>
  <i>3) An adjective which strictly speaking meant adhering to the teachings of Jacobus Arminius, a Dutch theologian, but in England had come to mean centralizing reforms of the English Church which edged it away from the more fundamental Protestantism or, as nearly everyone saw it, towards Catholicism in baby steps. Which for some strange reason did not go down well.</i>
</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXXXIII</p>
</div>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0007"><h2>7. Passing On The Petition</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>There is a further set of worries for the Holy Roman Emperor, a second son for the king, and a petition that will soon cause no end of trouble for several people in Scotland. It snows a lot. And Stephen finds out about his lover's private arrangement with an attractive woman.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <b>August 1633</b>
  <br/>
  <b>Wormit, Fifeshire, SCOTLAND</b>
</p><p>Stephen scowled as he again had to hesitate at his bedroom door. Jamie had come down with a heavy flu so he was having to keep clear of his friend for the next few weeks. And it did not help when 'someone' complained that after three weeks without sex he would be ready to let rip once he was in the clear.</p><p>The nobleman had quietly written off the bulk of September!</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXXXIII</p>
</div><p>He had a visitor later that day to help take his mind off things, his neighbour Lord Balmerino.</p><p>“What do you know of the king's solicitor”, his fellow nobleman asked, getting straight to the point as was his wont. </p><p>Stephen thought for a moment.</p><p>“William Haig of Bemersyde¹”, he said. “A Border lord and a slippery fish or so I hear, but decent enough. I have heard rumours that he was up to something but not what.”</p><p>“You missed the disgraceful overruling of parliament by the king, then”, his visitor said. “Many of our fellow lords were outraged and asked Haig to draw up a petition, a Remonstrance.”</p><p>Stephen winced. Technically this was the mildest of complaints that the barons could have come up with, a private letter to the king stating their grievances. But then this was Charles Stuart, God's representative on Earth against all who stood opposed had to be clearly evil. That he would not take such a thing well was about as certain as the sun rising in the east tomorrow.</p><p>“It has dawned on even the slowest of our fellow lords”, Balmerino said, “that if the king is successful in his drive to run England without a parliament, he will turn his attentions to Scotland. And worse, our beloved kirk. His wife continues to persuade those who attend on her to covert to her bastard faith while he lets her; we fear that he will seek to destroy us one by one and taking our money for their damn masques².”</p><p>“Why has this not been presented to the king yet?” Stephen wondered.</p><p>“Haig bottled it!” his visitor scoffed. “He went to attend on him thinking to present it to him or at least to intimate that many barons including myself had signed it, but the king refused to see him. I am half-sure that he let the king know what he was planning in the knowledge that that would help him avoid any trouble.”</p><p>“What would you ask of me?” Stephen asked.</p><p>“I was hoping you would agree to take on the role of running the county militia”, he said. “Your friend could do the actual soldiering but as we both know, men take orders better from someone like us especially if the situation becomes..... dangerous.”</p><p>Stephen had an uneasy feeling that dangerous was indeed what the situation was about to become, but nodded his agreement.</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXXXIII</p>
</div><p>
  <b>September 1633</b>
  <br/>
  <b>Wormit, Fifeshire, SCOTLAND</b>
</p><p>Never mind organizing a bunch of fighting men; Stephen was currently unable to organize his own legs into standing. Jamie had been pronounced clear of the flu last Wednesday and after waiting another couple of days to be sure, he had indeed let rip. Stephen did not remember much of the following weekend except that it was now Monday. Or possibly Tuesday. He was not really sure.</p><p>“So my 'Captain Amerike' wants me to run his little army”, Jamie grinned, dropping down beside him and making the bed bounce which elicited a yelp of pain from his immediate left. “Well, I suppose I have organized the brave captain himself.”</p><p>“You and your libido”, Stephen grumbled. “I was going to call the men together on Wednesday but I cannot do that while I am unable to stand up.”</p><p>Jamie chuckled in his most lascivious way and ran a calloused hand down Stephen's chest, making his cock... no, not going to happen.</p><p>“I will have you 'up', one way or another”, the soldier smiled. “My brave Captain Amerike.”</p><p>“Not a proper captain”, Stephen pointed out. “Just in charge of a load of men who, if anyone was foolish enough to give them guns, would likely do more harm to each other than the enemy.”</p><p>“But organize them by clans and they will make excellent pikemen”, Jamie said. “In any conflict with King Charles we will almost certainly find ourselves on the defensive and the pike is a great weapon for that, especially against today's resurgent cavalry. As I said about the guns, until someone improves them sevenfold they are of little use although I have heard that better models are on the way. For now however, better than cannons is all that can be said about them.”</p><p>“I would have thought you would be all in favour of being able to blast the enemy at a distance”, Stephen said.</p><p>“I blasted you at close range, and that was fun enough!” Jamie smiled brightly, earning himself an impressive eye-roll for his attempt at wit. “Cannons are even more unreliable than guns, let alone they slow down an army to a snail's pace. It is no good marching to meet an army thinking to blast them, only to find they have dodged around you and cut you off your supply chain. Remember King James the Second?”</p><p>Stephen had to think about that for a moment, partly because 'king' was how he kept thinking of his friend in unguarded moments.</p><p>“The one who got blown apart by a cannon that he was firing in celebration”, he said eventually. “Pride comes before a fall.”</p><p>“Or in this case being blown into so many pieces, they had to shovel him into his coffin”, Jamie smiled, ignoring another eye-roll. “Ready for what comes next?”  </p><p>Stephen shuddered in alarm.</p><p>“What?” he asked warily.</p><p>“Dinner, of course!”</p><p>It was not a sigh of relief. Whatever anyone smirked.</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXXXIII</p>
</div><p>
  <b>October 1633</b>
  <br/>
  <b>Wormit, Fifeshire, SCOTLAND</b>
</p><p>Jamie smiled as he read his letter.</p><p>“You seem to get a lot more letters than I do”, Stephen observed.</p><p>“But I always share them with you”, Jamie countered. “I share everything with you, especially the mighty Buckmaster. If you are feeling in the mood now...”</p><p>Stephen shook his head at him. He was still sore after last night thank you very much, and if either Fraser or Chatton smirked that day he would.... be cross.</p><p>“I have an arrangement with Diana, your Miss Prince”, Jamie explained. “When I returned from Germany I came as you know through London and stayed at the same house in Whitehall that you were in years back, although mercifully without Aunt Agnes and her dreadful stories next door!”</p><p>Stephen joined him in a shudder there. His fearsome aunt's latest tale apparently involved some book on strange creatures of Central America with unusual appendages.... he had managed to drop his mother's letter at that point but had still barely slept that night.</p><p>“Diana came round and introduced herself to me”, Jamie said. “She is a character and then some.”</p><p>Stephen stared at him sharply. He did not believe that innocent look for one moment.</p><p>“You thought her attractive?” he asked warily.</p><p>He wished the words unsaid the moment they were out. Jamie smirked at his blatant jealousy.</p><p>“I knew I was destined for another”, he said, “someone whose world I could rock and roll every night and who was far more beautiful. Rather more worryingly, so did she; she told me I was the fellow who would, and I quote, 'enter America soon, hard and fast'.”</p><p>Stephen blushed.</p><p>“As you know I always like to know what is happening in the world”, Jamie said, “so she arranged to keep in touch with me. She knows one of the king's couriers who takes his letters to and from Scotland, and gets her letters to me through them.”</p><p>“Is that not dangerous?” Stephen worried. “What if the king gets hold of them?”</p><p>“That could only happen if the courier betrays her”, Jamie said confidently, “and he would never do that. Not after she found out what his wife was doing with his brother. And his first cousin. <i>At the same time and in the same bed!”</i></p><p>Stephen winced. Some people!</p><p>“What news is there?” he asked.</p><p>“As I hoped, the Emperor has listened to those sycophants around him who claim that Wallenstein is set to betray him”, Jamie said. “For a mercenary he has been very loyal but there is nothing like the fear one is about to be stabbed in the back to make a man stab his would-be stabber first. Ferdinand may well cause the very thing he is afraid of by his own stupidity.”</p><p>“Like our own king”, Stephen sighed. “Anything else?</p><p>“The king has had a second son, called James”, his lover said, frowning. “Pity.”</p><p>Stephen thought wryly that for any other dynasty that would have been good news, but for this one with some people already wondering if the day might come when they needed to be rid of it, arguably less so.</p><p>“Indeed”, Jamie said. “Good in the sense that he now has the fabled 'heir and spare', but both boys will be brought up to believe in his own style of kingship. Thorough, as he likes to call it. What with his daughter that makes the accession of Elizabeth of Bohemia even less likely, and many Protestants will fear for the future.”</p><p>“You do not really think that this king would ever convert back to Catholicism?” Stephen asked dubiously.</p><p>“I am sure he would never do that”, Jamie said, “but what I think is not important. What is important is that because of his and his wife's behaviour many people will think he might, so when he does go too far few of them will then support him. If this Thorough policy of his continues, that day will come sooner rather than later!”</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXXXIII</p>
</div><p>
  <b>December 1633</b>
  <br/>
  <b>Wormit, Fifeshire, SCOTLAND</b>
</p><p>Stephen stared out of the window that looked across the Tay. It was snowing again, the ground a uniform white as far as the eye could see. Fraser had told him that in really bad winters the whole Firth itself would freeze over, enabling one to walk across the Dundee - if one did not mind getting frozen on the way! He was thankful that among his other talents (mostly horizontal ones!) Jamie was good at foretelling the weather and at the start of autumn he had warned Stephen that this winter would be a bad one. Hence he had decided to buy in extra coal while the prices were still low.</p><p>It looked like they would be needing it.</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXXXIII</p>
</div><p>
  <i>Notes:</i>
  <br/>
  <i>1) William Haig (b. 1586). His family had held Bemersyde House in Roxburghshire for four centuries by this time and still hold it to this day (2020), the title having been elevated to an earldom for William's descendant Field-Marshall Douglas Haig in 1919. As of 2021 the latter's grandson Alexander (b. 1961) is the current earl.</i>
  <br/>
  <i>2) An extravagant hybrid of a private pageant and a play, in which even the king and his family played roles.</i>
</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXXXIII</p>
</div>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0008"><h2>8. The Iceman Cometh</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Stephen is once again surprised at his lover's inventiveness. There is a family crisis, a family death, and a familial question as to whether some things are actually possible – which leads to a certain nobleman again being surprised. Also a good soldier is accused of treachery and pays the ultimate price.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <b>January 1634</b>
  <br/>
  <b>North of Wormit, Fifeshire, SCOTLAND</b>
</p><p>Stephen shuddered as he carefully put one step in front of another, while some smirking bastard strutted next to him as if he had not just given him the blow-job to end all blow-jobs. <i>Right in the middle of the frozen Tay, damn the villain!</i></p><p>“Now you can say we did it while you were walking on water”, Jamie teased. </p><p>“A.... a..... a..... tishoo!”</p><p>The soldier sniggered. It was his lover's own fault, insisting that in order to fit in with the locals (and because his fearsome mother had Commanded it!) he continued to wear a kilt even in these Arctic conditions. And when Jamie had seen those muscular legs..... well, soldiers were known for grabbing sex (along with other things!) at any opportunity. Especially when he had beauty personified walking alongside him.</p><p>“I should dig a hole in the ice and push you through it!” Stephen grumbled. “Insatiable horn-dog!”</p><p>He was ahead now, so he did not hear the stealthy soldier sneaking up behind him – right until he felt his kilt being lifted and a familiar warmth somewhere close.... Lord help him!</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXXXIV</p>
</div><p>Stephen had to be helped upstairs to his room, much to the amusement of his young trainee steward who managed to keep a straight face. Though he did allow himself a triumphant smile as he went in to see how his superior was doing.</p><p>Fraser scowled as he handed him a coin.</p><p>“He actually did it on the ice!” the older man grumbled. “What sort of sex maniac does things like that?”</p><p>It took him probably rather too long to spot the silence that followed that question, and the fact that Chatton was looking out of the window.... oh.</p><p>It was not just the master of the house who would soon be frozen in parts that even servants should not be frozen in!</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXXXIV</p>
</div><p>
  <b>February 1634</b>
  <br/>
  <b>Wormit, Fifeshire, SCOTLAND</b>
</p><p>“This king”, Jamie sighed as he read his latest letter. “He really does have a knack for doing the stupidest thing possible.”</p><p>“What has he done now?” Stephen asked, looking out of the window. It was still snowing and the novelty of the stuff was beginning to wear off, even after 'someone' had done an anatomically correct snowman outside the door this morning. Anatomically correct if unlikely; it was almost falling over with that protuberance!</p><p>“He has allowed a group of Jesuits to go to the new colony in Maryland”, Jamie said.</p><p>“I would have thought the Protestants would have been overjoyed to see the back of them”, Stephen observed. “That the king allows the bastards in the country to start with is bad enough.”</p><p>“You forget that this king's underhand dealings make them think the worst”, Jamie said. “He is determined that Maryland will remain a Catholic colony; he fears that several of those behind the sending of ships across the wide waters are seeking to divert Protestants there and swamp his new Catholic haven with the 'wrong' religion, namely not that of his beloved wife for whom the place was named. Remember, he has to give permission for any ship to sail.”</p><p>“If he hears of it”, Stephen said. “I would wager many settlers make a dash for it before he can find out; he is hardly likely to send anyone after them.”</p><p>“It would give the Navy something to do, rather than rot in port”, Jamie said feelingly.</p><p>Stephen looked hard at him. A cold chill gripped his heart that had nothing to do with the show still falling only a few yards away.</p><p>“You do not yourself wish to go?” he asked carefully.</p><p>To his relief Jamie chuckled.</p><p>“My care is for the men who serve as soldiers, like those idiots we are whipping into shape in this county”, he said. “As I have said before, if this king keeps on his current path, they may soon be needed.”</p><p>Stephen hoped that he was wrong in that. But he feared that he was not.</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXXXIV</p>
</div><p>
  <b>March 1634</b>
  <br/>
  <b>Coultra, Fifeshire, SCOTLAND</b>
</p><p>It was only a few miles to his son's house but the heavy snows meant that it had seemed to take forever. Jamie insisted on coming with him to help force a path through, and they finally made it.</p><p>“You were right about poor Wallenstein”, Stephen said as they finally walked up the path to the house. “The Emperor's foolhardiness drove him into trying to defect, but he was killed before he could.”</p><p>“Some rulers are too stupid to see the obvious”, Jamie said. “Our own included, sadly.”</p><p>The door was opened before they got there, followed by a blur of tartan as Luke fairly flew out of the door to throw himself at.. Jamie! Who laughed and swung the boy around before taking him inside.</p><p>Stephen did not scowl. He did not pout. He was not the least bit jealous. And that smirk of someone's was damnably annoying!</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXXXIV</p>
</div><p>
  <b>March 1634</b>
  <br/>
  <b>Wormit, Fifeshire, SCOTLAND</b>
</p><p>Stephen was impressed if not amazed to find that when they got back to their own house, there was a letter for him. He read it and his eyebrows shot up.</p><p>“Bad news?” Jamie asked.</p><p>“Not exactly”, Stephen said. “But it will affect me, I think. Aidan is engaged.”</p><p>Jamie looked at him in surprise.</p><p>“He did not mention to you that he was courting”, he observed. “Is there a problem?”</p><p>“He has proposed to Lady Mary Allendale, Lord Allendale's only daughter”, Stephen said, “and she has accepted. Mother and Father are fine with it of course, but...”</p><p>Jamie stared at him in confusion.</p><p>“I do not know the family”, he said, “though from the name their lands must border or at least lie close to your own. Allendale is a town to the south of Staward if I remember?”</p><p>“She is Catholic”, Stephen said heavily, “and she wants Adey to convert. He is willing but.... you can see the problem.”</p><p>Jamie could. All too well.</p><p>“The title is one of those that cannot be held by a Catholic”, he guessed. “He would have to resign the title; you would become the new baron and have to return to England. Unless Adey appeals to the king for an exemption, which given the king's current financial predicaments would cost a small fortune.”</p><p>Stephen sighed. Another complication in his life.</p><p>“Why not get Adey to be one of those 'paper Protestants'?” Jamie suggested. “We all know the king is barely fining any Catholics even though the law says that he should, so provided your brother appears Protestant until Theo comes of age the boy could still inherit. Hexhamshire is not on the road to anywhere so it is unlikely anyone would notice.”</p><p>“What a mess!” Stephen said.</p><p>He looked out of the window. At least it had finally stopped snowing, so perhaps he might be able to head down to Staward and help sort all this out.</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXXXIV</p>
</div><p>Fortunately the situation over his brother's new wife (and new religion) was sorted out in short order by Stephen's mother, who decided that the 'paper' solution was ideal and that her grandsons would be raised as Protestants. Although it was perhaps a tad cruel of Jamie to suggest that she could always use her sister's dreadful stories as the ultimate weapon against any government officials who stuck their noses in.</p><p>Cruel but arguably correct.</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXXXIV</p>
</div><p>
  <b>May 1634</b>
  <br/>
  <b>Wormit, Fifeshire, SCOTLAND</b>
</p><p>Stephen winced as he read his latest letter.</p><p>“More problems?” Jamie asked as he ran his socked foot up his lover's leg. </p><p>The nobleman again considered the advantages of trousers over kilts; at least they would stop the insatiable horn-dog from doing.... oh but that was good!</p><p>“Alexander has died”, he said, once he had recovered.</p><p>Impressively Jamie did not even hesitate before placing the name.</p><p>“That was your cousin the earl's third son, was it not?” he asked. “His youngest?”</p><p>“Yes”, Stephen said, frowning.</p><p>“What is it?” Jamie asked.</p><p>“Just that he was always Naomi's favourite”, he said. “Thor described him as frightful which, given how easy-going he himself is, says something. Young Edgar contracted something so Naomi took Alex on a trip to her own family. Unfortunately he caught something worse from one of them and died.”</p><p>Jamie thought for a moment.</p><p>“It seems to be a year for inheritance issues”, he said. “The earl only has two sons left and then it is your father, is it not?”</p><p>“He will not want to take on a title now he has all but retired”, Stephen said, “although he and Mother really could learn that when it comes to their letters, there is such a thing as oversharing!”</p><p>Jamie sniggered at that.</p><p>“So since Adey will not want to leave Northumberland, that makes me third in line for now.”</p><p>“Unless Naomi has more children”, Jamie pointed out.</p><p>“That would have to be another Immaculate Conception then”, Stephen said. “She and Edgar barely talk to each other these days from what Bren says, and have their bedrooms at opposite ends of the hall.”</p><p>Jamie chuckled.</p><p>“Thor still incapable of holding a pen, I suppose”, he grinned.</p><p>“And Bren says that Baldur's wife is still swapping ideas with him to keep their gentlemen 'content' as he puts it. Even the one about... ye Gods, is that even possible?”</p><p>Jamie came over to read the letter, and his eyebrows too shot up.</p><p>“Only one way to find out!” he grinned.</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXXXIV</p>
</div><p>It was possible. Barely!</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXXXIV</p>
</div>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0009"><h2>9. Taxes And Treason</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Stephen and Jamie welcome two visitors to Fifeshire and definitely do not celebrate a hated man's death (they were marking some other unspecified occasion, if anyone asks). The king orders both a restriction on flags and another opponent of his to lose his ears. The Three Kingdoms are in a mess so it is the perfect time for Charles Stuart to levy yet another 'emergency tax' – then to cap it all he finds out that a certain petition he had ordered banned is still around. Oops!</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <b>May 1634</b>
  <br/>
  <b>Wormit, Fifeshire, SCOTLAND</b>
</p><p>Stephen knew that it had to be bad. Given all that Jamie had seen in his life as a soldier, there were few things that could make him look like that.</p><p>“News from London?” he asked. His friend nodded.</p><p>“The king has restricted use of that Union Jack¹ of his father's to his own ships”, he said, “and other ships are to fly England's flag.”</p><p>Stephen looked at him shrewdly.</p><p>“I hardly think that that would get such a reaction”, he said. “What else?”</p><p>“William Prynne is the latest victim of the king's butchery”, his lover said in disgust, “just because that stupid book of his was deliberately misinterpreted as an attack on the queen as well as Arminianism. He is to be fined five thousand pounds², to be pilloried, imprisoned for life – oh yes, and to have his ears chopped off!”</p><p>Stephen winced. The king really was going too far in dealing with those who opposed him or even looked like opposing him. It was all going to end very badly, one way or another.</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXXXIV</p>
</div><p>
  <b>June 1634</b>
  <br/>
  <b>Wormit, Fifeshire, SCOTLAND</b>
</p><p>They had an unexpected visitor that month. Two in fact; Stephen's cousin Thor and his lover Brennus.</p><p>“Edgar thought that as you are now close to the succession”, Thor explained, “he wanted to transfer our single Scottish estate in Galloway, down near Gatehouse, to you. And Bal has had a son who he is naming after me – which would be good except that his wife keeps exchanging ideas with 'someone'!”</p><p>He yawned and glared at his travelling companion, who was already eyeing him like he was a tasty steak and growling ominously. Thor shuddered.</p><p>“Did you have a good journey?” Jamie grinned.</p><p>“I did!” Brennus grinned back. “I dare say my master cannot remember much of it, as he was mostly horizontal. Except that time I held him upside-down, of course!”</p><p>Thor glared round at the three laughing men.</p><p>“Edgar wants to sell it to you for a farthing³”, he said, “for some legal reason. I think also it is partly because Naomi made a fuss about it, so he is doing it partly to spite her. Their marriage is over in all but name, now.”</p><p>“Unlikely to be any more children, then”, Jamie said. </p><p>“Their sons are healthy enough”, Thor said, “but then this is the seventeenth century. Bren!”</p><p>His lover had somehow manoeuvred him onto his lap and had wrapped two beefy arms around him. He ignored the reproof and sure enough Thor was soon leaning back into his embrace.</p><p>“Whipped!” Jamie muttered, earning himself a scowl from their noble visitor.</p><p>“Hadn't thought of whips”, Brennus muttered.</p><p>Thor shuddered again.</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXXXIV</p>
</div><p>
  <b>June 1634</b>
  <br/>
  <b>Wormit, Fifeshire, SCOTLAND</b>
</p><p>It was the day after their visitors left that all hell broke loose. Stephen was working on the estate books when he heard Jamie whistle from the window-seat.</p><p>“What is it?” Stephen asked.</p><p>“Peterkin, Balmerino's manservant”, Jamie said. “And in the pouring rain. What can be so urgent that he has been sent here?”</p><p>Stephen thought that the manservant had been unlucky to get caught in a shower as the year had been all over the place weather-wise. Three months of solid snow had been followed by nearly two without any rain at all; perhaps fortuitously the ground had had the melted snow to sustain it but it would likely be another poor harvest. June too had been unseasonably dry; this was the first rainfall for a fortnight.</p><p>The manservant was shown in, and bowed to them both before handing Stephen a letter. He made to leave but the nobleman stopped him.</p><p>“Wait”, he said. “Do you know the contents of this, Peterkin?”</p><p>The fellow blushed fiercely.</p><p>“Yes sir”, he said. “His Lordship dictated it to his secretary while I was there, and he is making copies to send out to as many as he can.”</p><p>“Go to the kitchen and get yourself a hot drink”, Stephen said, scanning down the page. “Come back up when you are done – there is no need to hurry – then you can take a reply if I need to send one.</p><p>The servant nodded and left the room.</p><p>“Bad news?” Jamie asked.</p><p>“The worst!” Stephen sighed. “Balmerino has been arrested; the king got wind of Haig's petition and took exception to it.”</p><p>“No surprise there”, Jamie said shortly. “This king takes exception to everything!”</p><p>“That is not the worst of it”, Stephen said. “Balmerino has been accused of seditious libel!”</p><p>Jamie stared at him incredulously.</p><p>“That is the same as treason, plotting against the life of a king!” he exclaimed. “Not giving him a mild letter saying you do not like his policies!”</p><p>“You forget, the king has been replacing the Scottish judges who disagree with him with ones he likes, headed by that lick-spittle Traquair”, Stephen said. “And Balmerino's son is what, not yet three years old. The king is trying to destroy him as an example, in order to deter others.”</p><p>“And he will instead start a fire which may consume him”, Jamie sighed. “I am glad I have kept my sword polished.”</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXXXIV</p>
</div><p>
  <b>August 1634</b>
  <br/>
  <b>Wormit, Fifeshire, SCOTLAND</b>
</p><p>Jamie chuckled as he read his latest letter.</p><p>“I do wonder how Diana finds out what goes in in Scotland from four hundred miles away”, he said. “Traquair is organizing a relief effort for the Far North, where the harvest is even worse than down here.”</p><p>“Several Scottish barons either have lands in England or relations there like I do”, Stephen said. “They will be able to bring in food that way. I am surprised though; I did not think Traquair the philanthropic sort.”</p><p>“He is not”, Jamie said, “just like the Pope is not a Buddhist! He is doing it solely to distract the lords from the forthcoming trial of poor Balmerino – the one over which he will sit in judgement. And where our friend will be found guilty.”</p><p>“You do not know that”, Stephen challenged.</p><p>“True”, Jamie admitted. “It could just be a complete coincidence that Traquair has arranged to hire a fast ship to take him to London, where he would be able to point out to even this stupid king that carrying out a death sentence on Balmerino would be the same as carrying out one on his reign, at least in this country.”</p><p>Stephen scowled. He hated it when his lover was right!</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXXXIV</p>
</div><p>
  <b>August 1634</b>
  <br/>
  <b>Wormit, Fifeshire, SCOTLAND</b>
</p><p>“It may be wrong to celebrate someone's death”, Stephen said, “but in this case I am prepared to make an exception.”</p><p>“Who has died?” Jamie asked.</p><p>“William Noy, the bastard who encouraged the king to use all those tax dodges”, Stephen said.</p><p>“This king needs no encouragement”, Jamie said shortly. “The soap fiasco showed that.”</p><p>The nobleman could but nod in agreement. Three years back the king had granted a group of Catholics the right to manufacture soap in a new way and, critically, to check the soap of their rivals and destroy any that was not 'of a good quality' (i.e. all of it). The 'Popish Soap' had been a disaster; washerwomen had hated it despite an advertising campaign run by its makers; many merchants had been thrown in gaol, the old soap had ended up selling at twenty times its normal price on the black market, and the king had made a new lot of enemies for very little financial gain. It had gone down particularly badly in Scotland because as part of the new patent the king had banned the use of whale oil in soap manufacturing, thus destroying one of his northern kingdom's few profitable industries.</p><p>“These monopolies never work”, Jamie went on. “They hurt the common people and benefit only the hangers-on at the court, most of whom are Catholics.”</p><p>“Except that thanks to the late and unlamented Noy, they were <i>patents</i>, not monopolies”, Stephen said. “Licences for 'new' methods of making something rather than straight limits on an existing product; that way the king could still claim he was keeping to the royal word when parliament voted for no more monopolies, ever. Even if there were four times as many of the things as before!”</p><p>“The sad thing is, he is stupid enough to think his people will believe such sophistry”, Jamie sighed.</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXXXIV</p>
</div><p>
  <b>October 1634</b>
  <br/>
  <b>Wormit, Fifeshire, SCOTLAND</b>
</p><p>“It looks like the death of King Gustavus has knocked the wind out of the Swedish war-effort”, Jamie said over breakfast that morning. “The Imperial forces have won another major victory, this time at a place called Nördlingen.”</p><p>Stephen nodded, then winced as his head hurt. Again. Last month his insatiable lover had finally managed to break their four-poster bed, and he had had to have another one made especially (as well as considering whether carpenters who smirked at being asked to make it reinforced really deserved his business!). The impressive thing had been finished yesterday, and 'christened' last night.</p><p>He really hoped that this one would last. Never mind the damn bed; he might well not survive another night like that!</p><p>“No stamina, you youngsters”, Jamie grinned. “Would you like a large sausage?” </p><p>Stephen looked suspiciously at him.</p><p>“Only the cooked sort”, he said. “I was going to go riding later, you know.”</p><p>“I thought you did enough riding last night”, Jamie chuckled. “Oh no, wait – that was being ridden!”</p><p>Stephen scowled again and turned to his breakfast. His quiet, non-smirking breakfast.</p><p>“There is other news from England”, Jamie went on, “which will affect your family. The king is levying Ship Money⁴.”</p><p>“A legal stretch, but no more than any of his other cheats”, Stephen said. “Although I am sure his enemies will point out that that is supposed to only be levied in case of a national emergency.”</p><p>“And we all know who gets to decide what a national emergency is!” Jamie snipped.</p><p>“The king”, Stephen sighed. “Well, Ship Money is traditional and the coastal counties expect to have to pay it, Northumberland included. I wonder how he will push his luck this time?”</p><p>“I would say you are cynical”, Jamie smiled, “but I am sure you are right.”</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXXXIV</p>
</div><p>He was.</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXXXIV</p>
</div><p>
  <i>Notes:</i>
  <br/>
  <i>1) The term 'Union Jack' actually has nothing to do with this naval rule, but comes from its creator, King Charles's father James, since Jacobus is Latin for James.</i>
  <br/>
  <i>2) About £825,000 ($1 million) at 2021 prices.</i>
  <br/>
  <i>3) Literally a 'fourthing' or one-quarter of a penny, about 17p (21c) at 2021 prices. The coins ceased to be legal tender in 1961.</i>
  <br/>
  <i>4) Only parliament could raise taxes, but Ship Money counted as a levy on the coastal ports. They were required to either build a ship for the king or, if they could not do so, give him enough money to buy one. It was traditional and arguably the most efficient money-raising scheme in England – for now. Charles had gone to his judges before initiating this and they had assured him that it was absolutely legal and could not be challenged. Er.....</i>
</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXXXIV</p>
</div>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0010"><h2>10. Rough Justice</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Stephen decides that Guinea is just a dream but Coke might be a nightmare.  There is another terrible winter with even more heavy snow and worse, Jamie is still making anatomically-correct snowmen, damn the villain! Lord Balmerino is found guilty (shock!) but King Charles narrowly avoids a complete disaster – for now. And a certain nobleman prepares for a Very Difficult Conversation with his son.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <b>January 1635</b>
  <br/>
  <b>North of Wormit, Fifeshire, SCOTLAND</b>
</p><p>Stephen scowled as he stared out of the window into the falling snow. Some bastard of a lover had once again made an anatomically-correct snowman and, to cap it all, had come in with cold hands which he had put.... seriously, he valued certain body parts such that he did not want them to be literally 'frozen assets'!</p><p>“So”, his bastard of a lover grinned brightly. “Are you going to invest all your money into this Scottish Guinea Company¹?”</p><p>“Apart from the vileness of the slave trade which itself would deter me, no”, Stephen said firmly, pulling his Winter Soldier into an embrace. “The company is doomed from the start.”</p><p>“It may succeed”, Jamie said.</p><p>“Like the Spanish and Portuguese are just going to stand by while some third-rate country muscles in on their business!” Stephen snorted. “I had a letter from Traquair, by the way.”</p><p>Jamie looked sharply at him. </p><p>“What did the old vulture want?” he asked.</p><p>“The king is looking to test the waters over the Balmerino case”, Stephen said. “He has abandoned all the other charges but is determined to get him on the seditious libel, for which the penalty is as we know death.”</p><p>“Even Traquair cannot be so stupid as to think that you would be a king's man”, Jamie said, “and he sure as hell must know I am not. What is he up to?”</p><p>“He wants to know how the charge is playing among small fry like me”, Stephen said. “He is set to start the thing once this snow is gone so likely March; if he is fast enough then some parts of the country will still be cut off which might reduce any potential reaction. Although I would not be surprised if the Edinburgh folk try to seize Balmerino; their mood is angry enough just now.”</p><p>Jamie looked at his watch.</p><p>“What?” Stephen asked.</p><p>“Just wondering how many minutes it is until King Charles does something else stupid”, the soldier grinned.</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXXXV</p>
</div><p>
  <b>February 1635</b>
  <br/>
  <b>Wormit, Fifeshire, SCOTLAND</b>
</p><p>Stephen sighed. It never rained but it poured.</p><p>“What is it?” Jamie yawned. He had been out until after midnight, having been working on a cottage over in Ferryport whose roof had collapsed under all this infernal snow. Stephen had been quietly amused at the befuddlement of the owners in that the manor folk not actually looked after them but came to do their repairs in person.</p><p>All right, so his contribution had largely involved holding a ladder and looking up Jaime's kilt while thinking some Very Happy Thoughts, but at least he had shown up!</p><p>“Sir John Coke² is after the Scottish estate that Edgar sold me”, he said. “He has lands west of Perth to which he thinks they would make a fine addition, and is claiming that the Bradstock title is illegitimate in some way.”</p><p>Jamie snorted his disdain.</p><p>“If you cannot get the better of someone as thick as Crummy Coke then there is no hope for you!” he said. “Though after I have had my way with you later, there will probably be no hope for you anyway!”</p><p>Stephen rolled his eyes at him. The bastard was quite impossible.</p><p>And as things turned out, quite correct!</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXXXV</p>
</div><p>
  <b>March 1635</b>
  <br/>
  <b>Wormit, Fifeshire, SCOTLAND</b>
</p><p>What would prove to be a busy month started with some good news. On being told of his friend's Perthshire problem Jamie had written to Diana down in London, and in impressively short order she had written back. Coke had decided to drop his claims after she had pointed out to him the invalidity of his claim. And that pressing it might lead to all sorts of things about certain close family members of his being aired in public.</p><p>“Knot-holes!” Stephen shuddered as he read the missive. “Some men are just disgusting!”</p><p>“Was that an observation or a request?” his lover asked.</p><p>Stephen swatted at him.</p><p>“It could be worse”, Jamie ventured.</p><p><i>“How?”</i> Stephen asked testily.</p><p>“I could get Diana to tell dear Aunt Agnes about those knot-holes....”</p><p>The nobleman was horrified!</p><p>“Thor would never forgive you!” he said firmly.</p><p>“Bren will likely have killed him through sex by then”, Jamie said brightly, “so that would not be a problem.”</p><p>Stephen just rolled his eyes at him.</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXXXV</p>
</div><p>
  <b>March 1635</b>
  <br/>
  <b>Wormit, Fifeshire, SCOTLAND</b>
</p><p>It was impressive how quickly news of their neighbour's trial reached them from Edinburgh, especially considering how many roads were still entombed in the slowly retreating snow.</p><p>“They are having to march him to and from his cell every day with a huge armed guard”, Jamie told Stephen as they lay together one morning. “They are indeed terrified that the mob may rise and try to free him. A king afraid of his own people.”</p><p>“I would wager that Charles Stuart is too stupid to be afraid”, Stephen observed, running his fingers through his lover's long hair. “Traquair on the other hand is reportedly in a panic; he fears that anything other than a resounding conviction will reflect badly on him, yet any attempt to carry out a death sentence will cause a riot and that will make the king realize his man on the spot is not in charge.”</p><p>“What a mess!” Jamie sighed. “Well, we shall soon know one way or another.”</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXXXV</p>
</div><p>
  <b>March 1635</b>
  <br/>
  <b>Wormit, Fifeshire, SCOTLAND</b>
</p><p>“The king will be cross”, Jamie said. “A packed court yet convicted by only one vote, and that of his lick-spittle Traquair. He is already sailing to England to beg his master to grant a pardon lest he lose Scotland.”</p><p>“This king might be stupid enough to say no”, Stephen sighed.</p><p>“Traquair has already written to Laud to get his support”, Jamie said.</p><p>“How do you know that?” Stephen challenged.</p><p>“Diana, of course”, he said with a smile. “He actually wrote in winter as a precaution, a wise if foreseeable one. I wonder if the king will think him a failure and replace him with some other crony. Also they have tripled the guard around Balmerino lest the mob attack.”</p><p>“The guards have to live among that mob”, Stephen observed. “At least the fellow's journey to and from London will take time, although even if he does grant clemency the king will surely delay it to make the victim sweat.”</p><p>“He really does think that by making an example of one baron, the others will fall into line”, Jamie said. “But in this case the reverse is true; they will see that only in uniting against him can they prevent him picking them off one at a time. And that, my friend, means a revolt. Sooner or later, Scotland will rise.”</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXXXV</p>
</div><p>
  <b>April 1635</b>
  <br/>
  <b>Wormit, Fifeshire, SCOTLAND</b>
</p><p>“Bren writes that my cousin Baldur has had twins, two girls. He is calling them Thunor and Geor.”</p><p>Jamie looked up at his friend.</p><p>“You seem rather too preoccupied for such a minor development”, he said. “Is something wrong?”</p><p>Stephen hesitated.</p><p>“It is Luke's tenth birthday next week”, he said quietly. “I have been thinking and... I think that it is time to tell him the truth.”</p><p>“Do you want to face him alone or would you rather I be there?” Jamie asked.</p><p>“With you”, Stephen said unhesitatingly. “He will be moving in with the two of us once he knows, which means that I will have to tell him about us. I wonder how he will take that?”</p><p>“Easily of course”, Jamie said dismissively. “Who could resist someone as charming as <i>moi?”</i></p><p>Stephen just rolled his eyes at him.</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXXXV</p>
</div><p>
  <i>Notes:</i>
  <br/>
  <i>1) The company did indeed crash and burn by 1639, having made precisely one voyage with two ships and lost one of them to a Portuguese attack. There were no further Scottish colonial ventures until the ill-fated Darien Company was set up in 1695.</i>
  <br/>
  <i>2) Sir John Coke (b. 1563). A member of parliament who had represented Cambridge University (the centres of learning as they were then had two members representing their interests; these were not abolished until 1950). Coke chose to work for Charles after 1629; Edward, Earl of Clarendon of his critics described him as 'of very dumb education and a narrower mind'. Ouch!</i>
</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXXXV</p>
</div>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0011"><h2>11. Luke, I Am Your Father</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Stephen has what a later generation might call a Star Wars moment as he admits the truth to his son, who takes it surprisingly well and then proceeds to mortify his 'new' father. The Continental Wars enter a new phase, ships apparently sail inland, someone paints a ceiling, and Stephen's annoying younger brother contrives to still be annoying even at a distance of several thousand miles.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <b>May 1635</b>
  <br/>
  <b>Coultra, Fifeshire, SCOTLAND</b>
</p><p>Stephen took a deep breath. </p><p>“Luke”, he said carefully, “there is something important that I need to talk to you about.”</p><p>“Yes sir”, the boy said politely. “What is it?”</p><p>“It concerns your parents.”</p><p>Luke frowned. The nobleman flinched; he looked even more like him when he did that.</p><p>“They are dead, sir”, the boy said. “Mac and Mrs. Mac look after me now.”</p><p>Stephen took another deep breath. At least he had Jamie with him, radiating reassurance as always.</p><p>“I am afraid that first part is not quite true”, he said. “Your mother died giving birth to you, yes, but.... Luke, I am your father.”</p><p>The boy just looked at him. It was suddenly very cold in the room, Stephen thought.</p><p>“Oh”, he said after what seemed like an eternity. “Does that mean I have to live with you now, sir?”</p><p>Stephen narrowly resisted an urge to wipe his eyes. The dust in this room was terrible.</p><p>“It would be better”, he said.</p><p>“I can still see Mac and Mrs. Mac, though?” the boy asked.</p><p>“Of course”, Stephen said firmly. “They can come and see you any time they like, and you can go and see them too.”</p><p>The boy thought about all this. Stephen was relieved; he had feared that he would take it all badly.</p><p>“You live with Uncle Jamie, sir”, he said eventually.</p><p>“Yes, he shares my house”, Stephen deflected.</p><p>The boy looked at him, then at Jaime who blushed under his gaze. </p><p>“Oh well”, Luke said with a shrug. “At least I will not be getting any brothers or sisters!”</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXXXV</p>
</div><p>Some bastard of a lover laughed all the way back to the house, despite Stephen's scowl!</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXXXV</p>
</div><p>
  <b>June 1635</b>
  <br/>
  <b>Wormit, Fifeshire, SCOTLAND</b>
</p><p>“There is more news from the Continent”, Jamie sighed. “Peace on one front and war on another.”</p><p>“What has happened now?” Stephen asked, still scowling. Luke had gone off to his lessons having totally disgraced himself in his father's eyes by again asking 'how did you get someone like him, sir?'. The bastard opposite had been smirking ever since!</p><p>“The Emperor has signed the Treaty of Prague¹ with the Protestant rebels”, Jamie said, far too amused at his lover's annoyance. “A sort of status quo thing; let us all pretend that we have not spent the past two decades trying to kill each other and kindly do not mention the religion in the room thank you very much.”</p><p>“And the war part?” Stephen asked.</p><p>“France has taken the opportunity to declare war on Spain, as if that is new”, Jamie said. “They will be looking to expand that into helping the Protestants restart their struggle against the Emperor, and they will manage it sooner or later. By the way, I love it when you pout!”</p><p>Stephen scowled even more.</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXXXV</p>
</div><p>
  <b>August 1635</b>
  <br/>
  <b>Wormit, Fifeshire, SCOTLAND</b>
</p><p>“Still no news from London?” Stephen asked one morning, yawning as he sat down to breakfast.</p><p>“As we thought, the king is prevaricating over poor Balmerino”, Jamie said, “though that is perhaps a good thing as a straight refusal would have come sooner. Having upset everyone in Scotland he likely believes that tempers might cool given time. He is as ever wrong in that.”</p><p>“You look tired, father”, Luke said sympathetically. “Did you not sleep well?”</p><p>“Not really”, Stephen sighed. “I had a rough night.”</p><p>The boy looked accusingly at Jamie, who blushed.</p><p>“What?” the soldier asked.</p><p>“Hmm”, the boy said, shaking his head at him. </p><p>Stephen chuckled at his son and opened his letter.</p><p>“Oh.”</p><p>His son and lover both looked at him.</p><p>“What is it?” Jamie asked.</p><p>“The king is to extend Ship Money to the inland counties, to double his take”, Stephen said. “That will face all sorts of opposition; they have never had to pay it before.”</p><p>“But he will argue that we are all in this together”, Jamie said shrewdly, “and the judges he has appointed will back him. He has probably sounded them out already, knowing him.”</p><p>“Is what the king is doing illegal, Uncle Jamie?” Luke asked.</p><p>(Stephen did not fail to note how his lover's eyes watered at the appellation).</p><p>“It is not illegal, but only because the king is reading the law the way he wants to read it, Luke”, Jamie said, recovering with a visible effort. Seeing the boy's confused face he went on, “it is like you telling your father that you went out yesterday but not that you went all the way to Coultra and back in that downpour.”</p><p>The boy blushed fiercely. Stephen chuckled and continued with his letter.</p><p>“The king is also opening up the Royal Mail to private users”, he said, “as if anyone would trust a service run by his men! And Mr. Rubens is painting him a nice new set of frescoes for his Banqueting House in London. That will annoy people even more; they will ask why they are being taxed just so the queen can have something nice to look at over dinner.”</p><p>“I would hate being at court!” Luke said firmly. “All those smelly people who never have a wash. And London is so far away.”</p><p>Both men smiled and resumed their meals.</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXXXV</p>
</div><p>
  <b>August 1635</b>
  <br/>
  <b>Wormit, Fifeshire, SCOTLAND</b>
</p><p>They learned of the next development just two days later. Stephen heaved a huge sigh of relief as he read the letter.</p><p>“The official news will arrive in a few days”, he said, “but the king has graciously decided to free Balmerino by royal warrant. But he is to be confined to within six miles of his house for the rest of his life.”</p><p>“And not to be pardoned”, Jamie observed. “In other words, his name is still besmirched but the king has been forced to admit that he has not the power to carry out the sentence without losing Scotland. The worst of all worlds as per usual.”</p><p>“A commutation of the sentence would have been better”, Stephen agreed, “and the barons will still feel that they cannot trust the king. Still, Traquair will be pleased that he has avoided a disaster.”</p><p>“This disaster at least”, Jamie muttered. “There will be another one along in five minutes, with this king!”</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXXXV</p>
</div><p>
  <b>October 1635</b>
  <br/>
  <b>Wormit, Fifeshire, SCOTLAND</b>
</p><p>“May I go to bed early, father?”</p><p>An unusual request from any young boy, Stephen knew, but understandable in this case. Several fields around the village had been flooded by heavy rain off the hills – thankfully the harvest, what little there was of it, had been safely gathered in – but a rockfall had blocked a mountain culvert and diverted the water onto the already sodden fields. Luke had been excused his lessons to go out and help the men clear up; he looked exhausted but happy.</p><p>“Go get something to eat from the kitchens first, son, then you may”, Stephen smiled. “We do not want you waking up starving in the middle of the night.”</p><p>The boy nodded and hurried off. Jamie chuckled and waited until he was safely gone before kissing his lover.</p><p>“In the middle of it all he suddenly turned and asked me if you and I did any of what he called That Stuff”, he said, smiling as his lover reddened. “I told him that as two adults we did but not when he was around, and he said how grateful he was for that!”</p><p>“He is growing up far too fast”, Stephen sighed. “And with the way that this country is going, he may soon find himself on the battlefield².”</p><p>“I will have to start training him”, Jamie agreed, “and making sure he understands just what is involved. Better that than he be unprepared for the horrors of war.</p><p>“Adey writes that they have had a good harvest down in Northumberland”, Stephen said, “so he is sending some to me for our and our neighbours. Including poor Balmerino, of course.”</p><p>“He will have his revenge one day”, Jamie prophesied. “This king's mistakes are mounting up, and sooner or later he will go that step too far.”</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXXXV</p>
</div><p>
  <b>December 1635</b>
  <br/>
  <b>Wormit, Fifeshire, SCOTLAND</b>
</p><p>The wet autumn had made the roads even worse than usual so Stephen was surprised to receive a letter on Christmas Eve. The house was all a-flurry preparing for the first season where they would have a child in the house; he had agreed with Jamie that he would buy his son a new horse as his current pony was now too small for him.</p><p>(In private of course, he and Jamie always referred to Luke as 'their son'). And Jamie always seemed affected by that, which usually led to.... Things).</p><p>Aidan had written to Stephen with two pieces of news, the first of which was that the queen's latest pregnancy had resulted in a daughter to be called Elizabeth, presumably because the king thought that that might get him more credit with his people. Of more import perhaps was news from across the oceans, where their unpleasant brother John had been 'invited' to leave his latest place in the Massachusetts Bay Colony along with another troublemaker, a fellow called Roger Williams. They could not have been working together for Aidan reported that Williams had been thrown out for 'spreading dangerous ideas about liberty of conscience', while their brother was the sort of fellow who would have considered the late John Knox too centrist. Fortunately there was plenty of room over there for those sort of people to go off and found new colonies of their own, or as Jamie said when he told him, perhaps even get captured by Red Indians who might just use them as target practice. Unless perhaps some of them were cannibals?</p><p>His friend really was terrible at times, even if he had maybe possibly entertained vaguely similar thoughts himself. Perhaps.</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXXXV</p>
</div><p>
  <i>Notes:</i>
  <br/>
  <i>1) This ended most but not all fighting among Imperial states and effectively removed the religious element of the overall conflict. Its tenet that the religion of a state's ruler was automatically that of its people would late form the basis for the Treaty of Westphalia which ended the conflict thirteen years later. Over the next thirteen years it became a more traditional inter-state conflict, France against Spain and the Empire.</i>
  <br/>
  <i>2) Technically armies did not take boys, but in reality any who could wield a weapon might be drafted in times of need. Analyses of bodies found from the 1461 Battle of Towton showed that the average age of those killed was twenty, and some were likely as young as twelve.</i>
</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXXXV</p>
</div>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0012"><h2>12. Living On A Prayer</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Young Luke gives both Stephen and Jamie a Moment. King Charles makes what will ultimately prove to be a fatal mistake and his supporters in Scotland cannot tell him that as his always being right means that he does not have to listen to any criticism. The Dutch capture another unpronounceable town from the Spanish while someone does not have a prayer – which makes people think the worst of the king (again).</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <b>January 1636</b>
  <br/>
  <b>Wormit, Fifeshire, SCOTLAND</b>
</p><p>“I wish that you could be my daddy too, Uncle Jamie.”</p><p>Time suddenly seemed to stand still for Stephen, and he could see that his normally imperturbable lover had been deeply affected by what his son had come out with. They had taken advantage of a respite in the seemingly endless snowfalls to build a snowman – Stephen had threatened all sorts of reprisals on 'someone' if he made an anatomically correct one with Luke there – and the boy had obviously been happy to be out of the house for once.</p><p>And then he had come out with something like that.</p><p>“I am honoured for you to say that, Luke”, Jamie smiled.</p><p>The boy, eleven now and on the verge of becoming a man, looked thoughtfully between the two of them.</p><p>“But then I suppose you are, really”, he said. “From the state that poor Father was in this morning!”</p><p>It was not just the cold that was making Stephen's face bright red!</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXXXVI</p>
</div><p>
  <b>February 1636</b>
  <br/>
  <b>Wormit, Fifeshire, SCOTLAND</b>
</p><p>The snow had given way to rain. Lots of it. Stephen smiled as he saw his son march dutifully away from the breakfast table to his lessons; Jamie was giving him some basic lessons in fighting but only if he did all his book work.</p><p>It was 'providing an incentive'. Not bribery. </p><p>“There are rumours from England that the king may be about to reap the harvest of Menteith's fall”, Jamie said once the boy had gone.</p><p>“How?” Stephen asked.</p><p>“Laud wrote to Traquair warning him that given how quiet and well-ordered he keeps telling London that Scotland is nowadays, the king is minded to align the kirk with the English Church more thoroughly”, Jamie said. “Starting with the prayer-books.”</p><p>Stephen sighed.</p><p>“I can see exactly that the barons and gentry will say about that”, he said heavily. “A Catholic prayer-book in all but name, to drag Scotland another step along the Laudian road to Rome.”</p><p>“The barons here bitterly resent what he did to poor Balmerino”, Jamie said, “scaring him half out of his wits. They see that unless this king is stopped, any of them could be next. If the king really is stupid enough to try this, getting the people to rise will be child's play. The question then is, what will Charles Stuart do when he tries to raise an English army to crush us and finds that his Southern gentry are as fed up as his Northern ones with his tyranny?”</p><p>Stephen sighed. His son seemed to be growing up at a bad time when it came to avoiding wars.</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXXXVI</p>
</div><p>
  <b>March 1636</b>
  <br/>
  <b>Wormit, Fifeshire, SCOTLAND</b>
</p><p>“Traquair is beside himself!” Jamie chuckled that morning. “The king's official demand to replace the Book of Common Order with its English equivalent arrived today, and he is desperately seeking a way to stop his master from shooting himself in the foot.”</p><p>“No-one can stop God's representative on Earth”, Stephen said.</p><p>“I would guess he is going to play for time”, Jamie said, “in the hope that a miracle just happens along. He will suggest to his master that with the differences in languages – not much I know, but then this legal-minded king will believe that small words can make big differences – Scottish ministers should be employed to create a new book that might be more acceptable to the people, as well as avoiding any legal challenges.”</p><p>“There is no way the people would accept such a book regardless who wrote it”, Stephen said firmly. “Never mind what is in it; the fact that it is being done from several hundred miles away dooms it from the start. I almost feel sorry for Traquair, but then he did sentence Balmerino to death so not that sorry.”</p><p>Jamie smiled at him.</p><p>“Luke has taken advantage of a break in the rain to go and visit the MacDonalds”, he said. “He will be there all day.”</p><p>Stephen looked at him in surprise.</p><p>“I know”, he said. “I saw him off, remember?”</p><p>Jamie grinned, then glanced towards the door. Belatedly Stephen got it which was good – because he strongly suspected that he was about to get it!</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXXXVI</p>
</div><p>He was – and did!</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXXXVI</p>
</div><p>
  <b>May 1636</b>
  <br/>
  <b>Wormit, Fifeshire, SCOTLAND</b>
</p><p>“Schenkenshans.”</p><p>Stephen looked at his lover in confusion. It was a cold day and he had no duties that morning, so the two men were still abed.</p><p>“What?” he asked.</p><p>“The latest place taken by the Dutch”, Jamie said. “A key town from what Diana says; the Spanish position in the south of the country is crumbling now that they have to face the French as well.”</p><p>“The Dutch would do well not to trust King Louis”, Stephen said shortly. “He has his eye on at least some of those towns in the southern Netherlands for himself; the borders between the French and Flemish culture villages is a vague one.”</p><p>“Frederick Henry is smart enough to realize that, I am sure”, Jamie said. “I wonder though.”</p><p>“You wonder what?” Stephen asked.</p><p>“There is also news of two new colonies established in the Americas", Jamie said, "the Providence Plantation¹ and Connecticut. Both south of Massachusetts Bay. Perhaps your brother John is behind one of them?”</p><p>“I doubt it”, Stephen said. “We would have received a letter boasting about it by now, as well as asking for more money!”</p><p>“I would be less catty to the fellow who will be fucking your brains out in the study in the run-up to dinner.”</p><p>Stephen gasped, but further molestation was stopped by a timid knock at the door.</p><p>“Father?”</p><p>Stephen went deathly pale and somehow vaulted off the bed to reach the door in record time.</p><p>“What is it, Luke?” he asked tremulously, ignoring a certain someone who was smirking his amusement at his discomfiture.</p><p>“Mr. Fraser said that you asked to be reminded about going over to see Lord Balmerino this afternoon.”</p><p>Stephen blinked. Damnation, he had clean forgotten that after.... last night.</p><p>“Thank you, son”, he called out. “We will see you downstairs.”</p><p>“Yes sir”, came the reply. “And Uncle Jamie, try to leave him in one piece ‘in the run-up to dinner'!"”</p><p>At least Stephen had the consolation of seeing his lover turn as red as he was. Children!</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXXXVI</p>
</div><p>
  <b>June 1636</b>
  <br/>
  <b>Wormit, Fifeshire, SCOTLAND</b>
</p><p>“Why is your brother sending you a court prayer-book?” Jamie asked as Stephen read the latest letter from Northumberland. “Because it will soon be the law here anyway?”</p><p>“He wonders if I can see what is wrong with it”, Stephen frowned. “He knows that I do not like puzzles, damn the fellow!”</p><p>Jamie chuckled.</p><p>“What?” Stephen asked suspiciously. “Do you know? How can you know, come to that?”</p><p>“Diana told me in her latest missive”, Jamie said. “But I will leave you to work it out – unless you think that you can find a way to force it out of me!”</p><p>He waggled his eyebrows at his lover who.... well, he had not had anything planned for that morning anyway.</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXXXVI</p>
</div><p>Except possibly lying in their bed moaning as Jamie rode him to yet another orgasm. Stephen's body bucked but there was nothing left in the tank, and his broken body fell back as his lover eased down beside him looking annoyingly unruffled. Life was unfair!</p><p>“Looks like you did not get it out of me after all”, Jamie grinned. “But I certainly got it out of you – three times!”</p><p>Stephen tried to scowl, but all those facial muscles took a lot of moving.</p><p>“Just tell me!” he grumbled. “Preferably before you end me, damnation!”</p><p>“That reminds me, we must get your life-insurance sorted”, said someone who was not getting laid any more times today if only because that would surely have ended the nobleman. “Very well, my liege. The book is causing a rumpus not because of what is in it, but because of what – or rather who – is not in it.</p><p>Stephen just glared at him. Even that hurt!</p><p>“And?” he said testily.</p><p>“As you know, there is always a prayer for the health of the king, his family and his immediate heirs”, Jamie said. “Now that he has four children with two of them sons, they have dropped the prayers for his sister Elizabeth as she is only fifth in line to the throne. A logical and arguable move, but....”</p><p>He trailed off. Stephen saw what he meant.</p><p>“With this king's favouritism towards his wife’s fellow Catholics, people will take it as another signal of his intentions”, he sighed. “And he only has himself to blame – not of course that he will see that.”</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXXXVI</p>
</div><p>
  <i>Notes:</i>
  <br/>
  <i>1) The smallest of the fifty states is still officially called 'Rhode Island and the Providence Plantations'.</i>
</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXXXVI</p>
</div>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0013"><h2>13. Ships And Short Tempers</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>A minor Buckinghamshire landowner makes a principled stand against the king's latest money-grab, although his chances of success seem minimal (as in none). Stephen is compelled to have a Talk with his son over the latter's temper and there is another death in the family, this time a suspicious one. Also and amazingly, the king does the right thing for once – but he does it in such a way that it looks wrong anyway.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <b>August 1636</b>
  <br/>
  <b>Wormit, Fifeshire, SCOTLAND</b>
</p><p>“Mr. Buchanan reminded me to ask if you have seen the trees, my lord?”</p><p>Stephen looked in confusion at his steward. Fraser was looking more than a little rough today and again listing slightly, so presumably Chatton and Jamie had been exchanging 'ideas' again. But there was also something verging on a smile on the older man's face, something that had only ever been there since his friend's son had come to Fifeshire.</p><p>“What about them?” the nobleman asked.</p><p>“The leaves are falling, my lord”, Fraser said. “And it is not yet autumn.”</p><p>Now Stephen saw his point. There had been a drought across the Three Kingdoms throughout that year, and although it had been worse in the south, both Northumberland and Fifeshire had been affected.”</p><p>“I will start buying some grain in from abroad”, Stephen said. “Thank you for pointing it out.”</p><p>“Your mind was probably on other things, my lord”, the steward smiled. </p><p>Stephen blushed.</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXXXVI</p>
</div><p>
  <b>October 1636</b>
  <br/>
  <b>Wormit, Fifeshire, SCOTLAND</b>
</p><p>Jamie looked up from the letter he was reading.</p><p>“You were in London when they still had parliaments in England”, he said. “Did you ever meet a fellow called John Hampden?”</p><p>Stephen thought back.</p><p>“No, but my cousin Peter did”, he said. “The member for somewhere in Buckinghamshire so he represents an inland county; he thought him a solid enough fellow although he was less impressed with his cousin who barely uttered a word. What was his name again? – yes, Oliver Cromwell. I remember Peter telling me a while back that he had referred a good lawyer to the Fenman as he had some sort of legal contention, but luckily an inheritance from a relative helped sort matters out for him.”</p><p>“It is Hampden who has made the news”, Jamie said. “He has refused to pay part of his Ship Money levy and the king has decided to make an example of him in a show trial.”</p><p>“Which we know means he has consulted the lick-spittles that he has appointed as judges and they have told him that they will decide in his favour”, Stephen said with a sigh. “How much was he up for?”</p><p>Jamie re-read the letter.</p><p>"A large amount, and he paid all except for one pound¹ owing at a place in Buckinghamshire called Stoke Mandeville", he said. "Yet another miscalculation by this fool king.”</p><p>“Why do you say that?” Stephen asked.</p><p>“Think if you are being told to pay Ship Money, or even having to collect this infernal tax”, Jamie said. “All will be on hold now as people delay to see the outcome of the case, and we know how fast the judicial system is. A crushed snail would leave it in its wake!”</p><p>He read on, then sighed again.</p><p>“Lord Perivale has been killed at Wittstock, over in Germany where the Swedes have had another victory”, he said. “Poor Teddy; he was a decent fellow. At least the Swedes seem to be bouncing back now they are in alliance with the French, though it is bad that Englishmen are fighting and dying on both sides in that eternal conflict.”</p><p>“Religion often drives me to extremes, including putting their own lives on the line”, Stephen said. “Talking of fighting, how are the lessons with Luke going?”</p><p>His lover hesitated. Stephen was immediately anxious.</p><p>“What?” he asked.</p><p>“He wanted to learn how to handle a gun”, Jamie said, suddenly seeming to find the floor fascinating, “so of course I said no. I tried to explain how dangerous they were but he got angry and....”</p><p>He trailed off, blushing fiercely. Stephen felt his anxiety increasing.</p><p>“Go on”, he said.</p><p>“He said 'just because you sleep with my father, it does not give you the right to tell me what to do'”, he said, still staring at the floor. “I cuffed him on the side of the head and we just looked at each other for a while before he apologized.”</p><p>Stephen seethed.</p><p>“I think that it is time Luke and I had a talk”, he said firmly.</p><p>“Ste....”</p><p>“You will be there.”</p><p>Jamie looked at him in alarm, but nodded.</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXXXVI</p>
</div><p>A few minutes later Luke stood before his father, looking almost as nervous as Jamie.</p><p>“I want you to understand just how serious this is”, Stephen said firmly. “This is not just about you losing your temper, bad enough as that is. It is about our very existence here.”</p><p>His son looked at him warily.</p><p>“What do you mean, Father?” he asked in a tremulous voice.</p><p>“If it ever became known just what Jamie and I have”, Stephen said slowly, “it would destroy us. We would be put to death, make no bones about it. As a nobleman I would be beheaded, while as a commoner Jamie would be hung, drawn and quartered.”</p><p>Luke went pale. He knew from his lessons just what that entailed; the soldier had been very graphic in his description such that the boy had barely been able to face dinner that day.</p><p>“But you are happy”, he protested. “Is that not important?”</p><p>Stephen sighed.</p><p>“Luke”, he said, “anyone who has land or wealth, great or small, always has enemies some of whom want to take it from them. If you lose your temper and say something like that, and it gets back to those people, we would be destroyed and you would be taken away to be raised by someone else. You must understand that.”</p><p>The boy hung his head but nodded.</p><p>“I am sorry, Father”, he said. “Sorry, Uncle Jamie.”</p><p>“That is all right”, Jamie said generously. “Just be more careful in future.”</p><p>“I will, sir!” Luke said fervently.</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXXXVI</p>
</div><p>
  <b>November 1636</b>
  <br/>
  <b>Wormit, Fifeshire, SCOTLAND</b>
</p><p>“Baldur has had another son”, Stephen smiled as he read the latest letter from his cousin. </p><p>“Anatomically impossible”, Jamie grinned from across the window-seat. “As you said, if men could have babies I would have knocked you up a long time ago!”</p><p>Stephen shook his head at him, much as the saucy fellow was right.</p><p>“And he also writes to thank me for advising him not to invest in that Oriental shipping venture”, he said. “The Japanese shogun has closed his country to outsiders, and told those of his citizens living abroad not to come back.”</p><p>“Ouch!”</p><p>They were both distracted by the passing of Luke outside the window. The boy had been scrupulously well-behaved since his burst of temper a few months back, and was particularly respectful towards his Uncle Jamie. Who still blushed with pleasure every time he got called that, whatever he claimed.</p><p>Jamie waited until Luke had gone before running a socked foot up under Stephen's kilt. The nobleman sighed; his lover was quite insatiable.</p><p>Fortunately!</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXXXVI</p>
</div><p>
  <b>November 1636</b>
  <br/>
  <b>Wormit, Fifeshire, SCOTLAND</b>
</p><p>Stephen knew that something had to be wrong when he received a second communication from Baldur just two days later, which had to have been written while the first one was still on its way. What could have been so important?</p><p>“Perhaps Bren finally broke Thor?” Jamie suggested with a sly smile.</p><p>Stephen smiled back, but the smile faded as he read the letter.</p><p>“Oh.”</p><p>“What is it?” Jamie asked.</p><p>“Young Edgar has been poisoned.”</p><p>Jamie looked at his lover suspiciously.</p><p>“He was what, twelve years old?” he asked. “Too old surely to imbibe such a thing by accident.”</p><p>Stephen read the rest of the letter.</p><p>“He does not say”, he said.</p><p>Jamie looked at him then held out his hand for the letter. He sniffed it, then nodded and went over to there the fire was blazing merrily. Holding the letter up to the flames he read it himself.</p><p>“What are you doing?” Stephen asked, confused.</p><p>“I told Bren once about a trick I learned in the army”, he said. “If you want to write to someone about something but are afraid that the letter might be read, you write a secret message using a mixture that is mostly lemon juice. I thought I could smell it..... yes, here it is..... ugh!”</p><p>“What?” Stephen demanded.</p><p>“Bal suspects Naomi of poisoning her own son!”</p><p>“Oh!”</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXXXVI</p>
</div><p>
  <b>December 1636</b>
  <br/>
  <b>Wormit, Fifeshire, SCOTLAND</b>
</p><p>“Finally!”</p><p>Jamie looked at his lover in surprise.</p><p>“What?” he asked. “Have you found out about those hunky twin lovers I keep over in Dundee for those times I wear you out too soon?”</p><p>Stephen scowled at him.</p><p>“No”, he said. “King Charles has finally pardoned Balmerino, and he does not have to stay within a few miles of his home any more.”</p><p>“But he has done it as ungraciously and belatedly as possible”, Jamie pointed out, “and in such a way as to only remind the barons up here that they can only deal with him from a position of strength. And he is still bent on forcing that damn Catholic prayer-book of his on us, which the people will not accept.”</p><p>“You mean, which the barons will not accept”, Stephen said. </p><p>Jamie shook his head.</p><p>“The barons may be behind this”, he said, “but they are funnelling anger which is already there, not creating it anew. No, unless Traquair gets his miracle then next year the king will demand his wretched book is made law. And that, my friend, will start a revolt!”</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXXXVI</p>
</div><p>
  <i>Notes:</i>
  <br/>
  <i>1) About £160 ($200) at 2021 prices.</i>
</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXXXVI</p>
</div>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0014"><h2>14. The Happiest King</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>A woman is vanished, or rather banished. There is a new Holy Roman Emperor and possibly some changes as a result, while both Scotland and England fret over the ships meant to defend them and one ship in particular. There is a disaster near the Lizard, and Stephen quite deliberately makes his lover emotional because he knows full well what the consequences – horizontal, vertical, and even diagonal – will be!</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <b>January 1637</b>
  <br/>
  <b>Wormit, Fifeshire, SCOTLAND</b>
</p><p>Stephen smiled as he read his latest letter from Oxfordshire.</p><p>“Shut up!”</p><p>The nobleman stared innocently across at his lover, who was still red-faced and not just from playing out in the snow with Luke. Stephen had told his son to change his clothes but Luke had said that he was going to the gymnasium at the back of the house 'because I want to grow big and strong like my Uncle Jamie'. </p><p>His lover was still blushing!</p><p>“What?” the nobleman said innocently.</p><p>“I can always fuck the sass out of you later, you know”, Jamie pointed out.</p><p>Stephen chuckled.</p><p>“You really think that that is a deterrent?” he shot back.</p><p>His lover scowled again.</p><p>“What is the news from Oxfordshire?” he asked.</p><p>“Edgar has banished his wife to a cottage over in Buckinghamshire”, he said. </p><p>“Poor Buckinghamshire!” Jamie said at once.</p><p>“There is no proof, but he is sure that she was behind their son's poisoning”, he said. “Unfortunately she has that connection to the queen so he dare not try to bring her to trial. But he has told her that if she ever tries to come to the house again, the servants have instructions to shoot her!”</p><p>“Do they need any extra ammunition?” asked someone who was as bad as ever.</p><p>Stephen shook his head at him, but made a mental note to ask his cousin that question. Just in case…..</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXXXVII</p>
</div><p>
  <b>February 1637</b>
  <br/>
  <b>Wormit, Fifeshire, SCOTLAND</b>
</p><p>“The Holy Roman Emperor has died”, Jamie said suddenly.</p><p>Stephen was surprised.</p><p>“Nothing suspicious?” he asked, thinking of his own family. </p><p>His lover shook his head.</p><p>“Just old age”, Jamie said. “His son Ferdinand The Third has already sacked some of the warmongering ministers, so he may be looking for peace.”</p><p>“With so much of his country in ruins, he would be wise to do so quickly”, Stephen observed, “especially with the French gunning for him. It is nearly twenty years of war now.”</p><p>“We will be seeing war here soon, I am afraid”, Jamie prophesied. “I heard that idiot Spottiswoode¹ has written to the king to warn him that the new prayer-book will not be accepted; of course he was ignored.”</p><p>“Shock horror!” Stephen said in mock astonishment. “Charles Stuart not listening to good advice? Is there a vowel in the month or something?”</p><p>Jamie chuckled.</p><p>“Worse, the king has apparently decided that when the thing is finally used, he is going to make a big show of it in Edinburgh”, he said. “Which means poor Spottiswoode will have to be there to watch everything go to pot. Shall we go and watch history being made?”</p><p>“I am sure there will, by an amazing coincidence, be similar scenes in Dundee when they try to use it there”, Stephen reflected. “And in Glasgow, Perth, Stirling, Aberdeen and Inverness. But it is some time since we have been to Edinburgh and I can ask Balmerino if he can get us a good seat to watch it all.”</p><p>“Only one seat?” Jamie asked. “Well, I suppose that I can always sit on your lap.”</p><p>Stephen shook his head at the rogue.</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXXXVII</p>
</div><p>
  <b>March 1637</b>
  <br/>
  <b>Wormit, Fifeshire, SCOTLAND</b>
</p><p>“I would have thought that you would have been all in favour of a strong navy”, Stephen said. “This new ship will be one of the biggest in the world from what is being said about it, at least six times as expensive as a normal warship.”</p><p>Jamie shook his head at him.</p><p>“Two things wrong with that”, he said. “It is like having the biggest cannon on the battlefield; fine and good for morale but what if things go wrong and the enemy captures it? Then you are up a creek while your enemy has both the canoe and the paddle.”</p><p>“I suppose so”, Stephen conceded.</p><p>“More worrying is the rumours I am getting that the king is back to his double-dealing again”, Jamie said. “He has opened talks with both the French and the Spanish as to which of them will pay the most to secure the services of the English Navy. A skilled if not particularly large force, but one which could tip the balance for control of the seas.”</p><p>“The Spanish are in more of a mess, I would have thought”, Stephen said.</p><p>“But they still managed to destroy that convoy we had with the Dutch off the Lizard in Cornwall”, Jamie said. “If the king can reach agreement with them they could march their troops across southern England and make the short crossing of the Narrow Seas, rather than risk the French ships waiting for them off Brittany. I am sure they would pay handsomely for that.”</p><p>Stephen was about to say something when he stopped. Jamie nodded.</p><p>“Yes, that would make the king seem even more pro-Catholic and therefore more unpopular”, he said. “But he would not care provided he got those Spanish ducats, as that would enable him to avoid calling a parliament.</p><p>His lover was very much afraid that he was right.</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXXXVII</p>
</div><p>
  <b>May 1637</b>
  <br/>
  <b>Wormit, Fifeshire, SCOTLAND</b>
</p><p>Stephen allowed himself a small smile. For all that his lover was the most manly man in existence, sometimes he was a complete sap.</p><p>Luke looked in awe at the dagger.</p><p>“For me?” he said, sounding awestruck.</p><p>“Aye”, Jamie smiled, with what was definitely a sniff. “We thought that you should have a weapon of your own; not a jewelled one or anything fancy I know but....”</p><p>“It is wonderful!”</p><p>Stephen had to work harder to suppress his smile. Jamie had expected the boy to want one of the bejewelled daggers that the sons of the rich noblemen wore, but he was clearly entranced with this plain one.</p><p>“As I told you”, Jamie said, recovering and staring suspiciously at his lover, “every dagger has its own balance. We can train you with this so you can defend yourself if need be, then when you are a few years older you can have a heavier one and a sword as well. Though....”</p><p>“I love you Uncle Jaime!”</p><p>Stephen could smile at last as the boy barrelled into his lover who was knocked back onto the couch, letting out a gasp of surprise. Though knowing Jamie's ability to read him like a book he would probably have spotted his reaction, for which he would certainly extract payment later. </p><p>At least Stephen hoped so!</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXXXVII</p>
</div><p>“The queen had another daughter last month”, Stephen said casually a few hours later. “She is to be named Anne, after her late grandmother.”</p><p>Jamie looked at him suspiciously, but said nothing.</p><p>“And the king reportedly told the Elector Palatine that he considered himself the happiest king in Christendom”, Stephen continued.</p><p>“Were you smirking earlier when I gave Luke his dagger?” his lover demanded.</p><p>“Maybe?”</p><p>Jamie looked hard at him.</p><p>“Why did you want me to give him the thing?” he asked after a short pause. </p><p>“Because I knew that it would make you come over all emotional!” Stephen grinned. “And there are few things better than you when you get all.....”</p><p>He got no further, mainly because he was being carried to and then thrown onto the bed before Jamie started removing all his clothes with amazing rapidity. Score!</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXXXVII</p>
</div><p>
  <i>Notes:</i>
  <br/>
  <i>1) John Spottiswoode, born 1565 and Archbishop of St. Andrews (i.e. the Scottish primate) since 1615. An advocate of the Charles Stuart School Of Diplomacy (i.e. none).</i>
</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXXXVII</p>
</div>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0015"><h2>15. Incoming!</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>There is talk of a past royal scandal, problems with a rebellious American colony, and plans for another 'royal example' to be made of the king's opponents. Then both Stephen and Jamie are off to Edinburgh and St. Giles's Cathedral where the king’s new prayer-book is read for the first time. And the last as a woman loses her temper, picks up her stool and…...</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <b>June 1637</b>
  <br/>
  <b>Wormit, Fifeshire, SCOTLAND</b>
</p><p>Stephen sighed as he read the latest news from London. It was depressing enough without the knowledge that at the end of the next month the king wanted his infernal new prayer-book used in all kirks, which would as Jamie had said cause a riot. Then what?</p><p>At least he was in his lover's arms, Jamie having come in from teaching Luke how to use his new dagger. He had warned the boy that if he abused it in any way then it would be taken from him; Stephen gave his son credit for turning to him to see if he would gainsay that, but he had stood by his lover. </p><p>“You seem sad”, Jamie observed. “We still have a month or so for Traquair to get his miracle and stop that infernal prayer-book.”</p><p>“It is not that”, Stephen sighed. “William Prynne, Henry Burton and John Bastwick have been found guilty of publishing things that the king Does Not Like, and are to be pilloried before having their ears sliced off.”</p><p>“Might be a bit difficult for poor Prynne”, Jamie observed, “as the king had them removed the last time he crossed him.”</p><p>“He is to have the stumps removed”, Stephen muttered, “and the letters 'S.L.' for Seditious Libeller burnt into his cheeks. Barbaric! And the king has again prohibited anyone from sailing to the New World.”</p><p>“I am sure the same gentry who he has been driving around the bend with new taxes these past eight years will rush to enforce his rulings”, Jamie said with obvious insincerity. </p><p>“The king has also gotten into an argument with the Massachusetts Bay Colony”, Stephen said, reading on. “Some legal quibble about their charter which means that he cannot fully control them; incredibly his judges have warned him that he would likely lose if he pressed matters.”</p><p>"I read about that", Jamie said. "Unlike most of the other colonial companies the men behind it went over there, and very wisely took their charter with them. The king cannot do anything with it unless he has the original, which I would wager they have the sense to keep several thousand miles from him!"</p><p>"It is almost as if they do not trust him", Stephen smiled. "Those several thousand miles do not apparently prevent them from seeing him for what he is. An idiot!"</p><p>“He will offer them a fine as a way out, probably”, Jamie said. “With no money to hand, the last things he needs is one of the American colonies making a break for freedom. If he thinks Scotland is remote at least he could march an army here – though he would have to assemble one first and as I said, those gentry he has been annoying for so long will I am sure not put themselves about when the call comes.”</p><p>“And the king will be most grievously astonished!” Stephen sighed.</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXXXVII</p>
</div><p>
  <b>July 1637</b>
  <br/>
  <b>Edinburgh, Midlothian, SCOTLAND</b>
</p><p>The capital seemed even dirtier and even more unpleasant than the last time they had visited. Luke had wanted to come with them as he needed some new clothes but Jamie had pointed out that he could as easily get them a few miles across the Tay in Dundee.</p><p>The boy's pout had been epic! Although to be fair Jamie had explained the dangers that might be involved at this time, and it said a lot for the regard in which the boy held him that he had accepted that.</p><p>They arrived three days before the Sunday on which the new prayer-book was set to be used, or (Stephen suspected) to be tried to be used. The city had a tense atmosphere about it, not helped by the assemblages of the great and the good filling the place's beds. Fortunately Stephen's grandfather Baron Edward had graduated from the university here and had continued to help fund it afterwards, so they had been able to find beds. </p><p>“Part of the university is said to be built over Kirk O' Field”, Jamie said as they walked across the huge campus.</p><p>Stephen just looked at him blankly. The soldier chuckled.</p><p>“Where Lord Darnley was killed?”</p><p>The blank look continued.</p><p>“Mary Queen of Scots' second husband”, Jamie explained, his dark eyes dancing with amusement for no good reason. “She had got tired of him, especially when a year before he had been complicit in a plot to stab her Italian secretary David Rizzio right in front of her!”</p><p>Stephen looked quizzically at him.</p><p>“Her secretary?” he asked dryly. “I wonder if he took down rather more than just her letters?”</p><p>“According to some legends he was having an affair with someone else at court”, Jamie grinned.</p><p>“That is Italians for you”, Stephen said.</p><p>“Lord Darnley himself!”</p><p>The nobleman nearly fell over his own feet.</p><p>“Is that true?” he demanded.</p><p>“Who knows?” Jamie said. “You know what royal courts are like; they may leak gossip like a ship with the keel fallen off, but finding out the truth is anyone's guess. The two had certainly fallen out when Darnley had him killed or rather let some baronial friends of his into his wife's bedchamber to do it; they rather carelessly left his dagger sticking in one of the fellow's fifty-seven stab wounds so his wife was not best pleased.”</p><p>“And Darnley was murdered here?” Stephen asked interestedly.</p><p>“A year later, Mary was rumoured to be interested in one of the Border lords called James Bothwell”, he said. “There was a huge explosion and Kirk O' Field was blown to kingdom come! Darnley's body was found along with his valet's in the orchard nearby.”</p><p>“Blown clear by the explosion?” Stephen asked.</p><p>“Not unless they managed to strangle themselves in the process!” Jamie snorted.</p><p>“Murdered by Bothwell, then?”</p><p>“By one of those amazing coincidences Bothwell had just been appointed sheriff of Edinburgh by the queen”, Jamie went on, “so he sent all the witnesses home and had the place flattened 'on Her Majesty's orders'. She had Darnley quickly buried – not even a state funeral – and did not exactly seem to be much in mourning. She even played a round of golf."</p><p>"'I am <i>so</i> heart-broken; now watch this drive!'" Stephen grinned.</p><p>"Then a few months later she was 'abducted' by Bothwell. who 'forced' her to marry him.”</p><p>Stephen could hear the quotation marks there.</p><p>“A set-up?” he asked.</p><p>“If it was, it failed”, Jamie said. “The barons thought her complicit – like our own king, what people believed was more important than what was actually true, though it may have been the same in her case – and raised an army against her. Some of her men would not fight so she surrendered and was forced to abdicate in favour of her one-year-old son; Bothwell was allowed to flee abroad where he died. She escaped the following year but got beaten again and fled to England, where Elizabeth eventually cut her head off. There were rumours – nothing provable – that her son succeeding to the English throne and not making a fuss when his mother was executed was all part of a secret deal which, knowing the last of the Tudors, was all too likely.”</p><p>Stephen shook his head at such goings-on. Although if this Sunday went as expected, they and Scotland would once again be living in interesting times.</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXXXVII</p>
</div><p>Three days later and it seemed as if half of Scotland was trying to cram into the great church. Stephen and Jamie were slipped in through a back door and to a place which, if partly behind a pillar, was at least close to the pulpit.</p><p>“What are those ladies doing in the best seats?” Stephen wondered. A group of market-traders were sat in the seats normally reserved for the very richest ladies close to the pulpit.</p><p>Jamie gestured to where the aisles of the cathedral were full of people. As were all of the seats that Jamie could see.</p><p>“It is traditional for them to sit there until the rich ladies arrive”, he explained. “Probably the latter cannot get in, such is the crush in this place. Here comes Dean James Hannay; I would wager that he wishes himself anywhere but here today!”</p><p>The dean, a sombre-faced fellow in his fifties, mounted slowly to the pulpit and opened the prayer-book before him. King Charles's new prayer-book, as every single person in this place well knew. There was muttering from the crowd but also some shushing as people were keen to hear if their worst fears were true.</p><p>As was traditional the dean began to read from the book, pausing for the people to either repeat his words or just mutter 'Amen'. It did not seem to Jamie much different from what was usual at first, but then there came a phrase that was most definitely Catholic in tone. The muttering in the crowd grew appreciably louder. </p><p>The dean hesitated and lost his place. Then in what should have been the briefest of pauses, it happened. One of the market-traders¹ suddenly took exception to the new book. She closed her book with a snap and used it to whack the fellow next to her, who was midway through repeating the dean's last words, a sound thwack upside of the head which sounded absurdly loud in the huge cathedral. </p><p>“De'il gie you colic, the wame o' ye, fause thief; daur ye say t'Mass in ma lug?²”</p><p>With that she whacked him again – but then she did something much more serious. She had with her a small folding-stool which, Jamie knew, was for when she and her colleagues were sent to the back of the cathedral as happened most Sundays. Except, unfortunately, today for she picked it up and hurled it straight towards the startled dean. Time seemed to stand still and everyone held their breath as it soared through the air towards its target.....</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXXXVII</p>
</div><p>
  <i>Notes:</i>
  <br/>
  <i>1) Jenny Geddes. Mentions of her do not appear in contemporary records but turn up soon after. She and her fellows were almost certainly put up to their 'mischief' by the ladies whose seats they were in.</i>
  <br/>
  <i>2) 'A curse of stomach pains on you, false thief; how dare you say the Catholic Mass in my ear!'</i>
</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>MDCXXXVII</p>
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  </div></div>
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